Half Life: Our Escape
by Brighter-Than-A-Thousand-Suns
Summary: Things haven't been right since the vortigaunts turned up. Lazy, alcoholics, drug addicts. They brought poverty, crime and slums, and were always ranting about "The Combine". Perhaps we should have listened to them. Rated T for language and themes.
1. Chapter 1  The Seven Hour War

**Part One – The Seven Hour War**

It was 11pm on a Sunday night. I was in bed, listening to the radio. It was tuned to a low profile news station in some obscure foreign country. It was in English, so you can be pretty sure I was one of about three listeners, considering it was the middle of the night in this country, too.

"So anyway... we've had rumors of weird, flying... things." The host wasn't exactly the brightest of people, "Of peculiar bubble things and balls of green lightning. Is it just me, or is everyone in the world just getting high? My vortigaunt friend here has something to say, I'll put him on."

"Mmmmm... The Combine approach. They seek only to enslave and dominate this planet, like the rest of the galaxy. Our end is coming."

"OK... thanks for that, Vorti. Let's put on some music. This was a request from a Mr Mike Hunt and... son of a-"

The song "Never gonna give you up" came on. I flicked the light on and leapt out of bed. This was it. I fumbled for my phone, found my father's number and hit call. Three rings.

"Talk to me." came my father's voice.

"We have to go. I'll meet you at the batch."

He was silent for a minute. "I understand. I may have to stay a few days. The injured."

"Good luck." I ended the call.

Over to the wardrobe, I pulled on my jeans, shirt and leather jacket. Put on a holster. Grabbed my bag, grabbed my keys and headed for the door, stuffing the radio into my bag as I walked.

This was the moment I'd been planning for years, but I hadn't expected it to come at eleven o'clock at night.

In the garage I climbed into my car, my prized possession: my RX-8. Of course, I couldn't normally afford such an expensive car, especially not one in such perfect condition, but my father had sold it to me cheaply after he'd bought a nicer car.

I drove out onto the street. Into second. Into third. Into fourth. Back into second as I turned a corner. Back into third, then fourth as I got onto a main road.

Heidi was my priority. She'd be at home, so I had to head there. Calling her cellphone, there was no reply. Hardly surprising, it was 11:30, she had work in the morning, and usually went to bed early anyway. I called her home phone. After eight rings, she answered.

"Uh... hello?" she said groggily,

"Hey, it's me. Really, really sorry about the lateness of this call, but it's kinda important. I can't really explain over the phone, I'm heading over now. Can you please get up? Don't wanna be rude, but we'll need to leave pretty soon. And if you could put a pot of coffee on, I'm sure we'd all benefit. I've got a feeling we'll all be up most of the night. Thanks a lot, see you soon."

Heidi and I had been going out for two years. When I said something was important, she knew it was important. I kept driving, only 20 or so km over the speed limit.

It took another eight minutes to get to Heidi's house. By then the wind and rain had kicked in, making me more anxious. I didn't know who these "Combine" were, but the rumors I'd heard didn't sound good.

Pulling up at her house, I leapt out of the car and jogged to the front door. Heidi was looking out the window, dressed in a night gown, and she opened the door. "Harry, what the hell is going on?" she demanded.

"Sorry. Really sorry. But we have to get out of the city. The Combine are coming, it's war all over again. Heidi, I know I must sound stupid here, but I'm being deadly serious. If we stay here, we're fucked."

"I trust you, Harry." said Heidi, softly, "You've never been wrong before. But I'm scared. When you start getting agitated, there's bound to be something seriously wrong." I was generally a very calm person, it was one of the things Heidi liked about me. When she'd been freaking out about exams back in school, I was there to calm her down, to help her study. When she'd had a bad day, I was there to comfort her and stroke her hair.

"It's gonna be OK, Heidi. I'll keep you safe." I said reassuringly. She came over and put her arms around my waist. I gave her a hug. "OK, get anything you may need." I said, snapping into business mode. "Medication, documents, stuff you can't live without. We've gotta travel light. We leave in ten minutes."

She went to get her stuff. Unlike me, she didn't have an emergency pack. I made a cup of coffee, drained it, and went to help her.

"You'll need basic essentials," I repeated, as I helped her pack some things into a bag, "A couple of clothes, nothing much."

"Where are we going?"

"My dad's house on the West Coast. We'll be safe there. He's going to meet us there, eventually."

"Are we going there straight away?"

"Not quite. I've gotta pick up a few things first. Then we'll go."

Five minutes later, we left, Heidi locking the door and both of us holding cups of coffee. I had her bag. She was still quite confused, and I don't blame her. When your boyfriend comes over in the middle of the night, telling you that you need to get out of the city, you'd be pretty confused too.

"How are we getting there?" asked Heidi, looking around for my car. I pointed out the RX8, "That's what we're driving?" she exclaimed, "How on earth could you afford that?" I had only acquired the RX-8 in the past few days, and Heidi hadn't yet seen it. She was used to me driving a beat up, old pickup.

"Good question." I said, putting her bag in the trunk and opening the door for her. I got into the drivers seat, put the car into first, and away we went.

Ten minutes later we arrived at the house of my old friend, James. Grabbing my hatchet I said to my still very confused girlfriend, "Come on. This won't take long."

I went to the door, knocked, and went inside, heading straight for the living room.

"Don't worry, folks. I used to live here. Just came to pick up a few things." I called. Going to the wall, I gently tapped it with my knuckle, moved along, tapped again, moved along, tapped again, then swung my hatchet into the wall. James walked into the room at that moment. He smelled of marijuana. This was nothing new; he grew pot.

"It's time, then?" he said calmly, walking over and taking the hatchet.

"Yeah. Get Olivia, get your car and get the fuck out of here. Head for the coast if you want, that's where we're headed." I replied as he continued hacking at the drywall.

"I might follow you. Safety in numbers, you know? Ah, fuck this wall." He began gouging slabs out, and a large black bag came into view. I helped pull away the wood, then tugged the heavy bag out of the wall with James' help.

"Um... what's in the bag?" asked Heidi.

"Brace yourself." I said, unzipping the bag. Inside were a bunch of powerful guns, with plenty of ammunition. I grinned for the first time all night. "Enough to take down a small army." I said, taking out a shotgun and ammo pouch.

"Alright, I'll just grab my bag then we'll go." said James.

"D'you wanna ride with us, or bring your car?" I asked,

"I'll bring mine." he said, grabbing his apocalypse bag, "So what are you driving?"

"You'll see." I said, loading the shotgun. James and I picked up the heavy gun bag and went out to the car.

"Shit! Nice, man!" James exclaimed as the RX-8 came into view. We hefted the bag into the trunk, James got into his car, and off we went.

We'd have to head past Olivia's house, so rather than split up, I followed James. It was costing us valuable time, but I couldn't ask James to abandon his girlfriend. None of us were quite sure what was going to happen, but it wouldn't be good. The vortigaunt on the radio had said the Combine were coming. I didn't know what the Combine were exactly, but I'd heard vortigaunts refer to them before. They were some sort of alien with an Empire throughout the galaxy, or universe. I wasn't sure which, but I wasn't really worried about that at the moment.

On the way, I made another phone call.

"Louis? Yeah, hey. It's Harry. Yeah, it's in a window this time. Seriously, though, we're all about to die. Combine. Yeah, I was listening to this radio station, they've gotten reports of... yep. Probably still talking about it. The IP is... just a sec. 211. 461. 889. 65. That's . Anyway, I'm with Heidi, and we've got James and Olivia following. We're heading for the coast, but will be passing you guys on the way. Mind if we drop in for a drink and some ammo? And do you wanna come with? Sweet, see you in a couple of hours."

It was half past one when we finally reached Olivia's house, and quarter to two by the time we left. We rigged up a radio system through James' cell phone and my laptop, so that we could stay in contact at all times.

In the past few years, the city had grown exponentially. In heavy traffic, it would often take four or five hours to cross it. It was also difficult to leave the city. Since aliens started showing up, walls had to be built; high walls laced with barbed wire and guards to keep out the antlions, and strong enough to withstand antlion guards. There were only a few exits, and they were heavily patrolled.

Lucky for us, it was two in the morning, so traffic wasn't too bad. We got to the city gates by two fifteen.

It wasn't difficult to leave the city. They were supposed to check you for ID, find out the purpose for your departure, but the guards were slack. None of this was enforced, because the more people that died outside the city, the better. It meant there'd be fewer people in the city.

I pulled over outside the first set of gates, and a guard sauntered over to me, assault rifle in hand.

"Over eighteen, sir?" he asked,

"Yep."

"Purpose for leaving?"

"Antlion hunting." I said, nodding to the shotgun. Of course, this was bullshit, I was driving an RX-8, was accompanied by a young woman, and it was two in the morning. The guard knew this was a lie, but none of them cared.

"Got a license for that shotgun?"

"Of course."

"Any other weapons or illegal items in the car?" he asked. There obviously was, as there was a pipe and multiple types of ammunition in clear view, but like I said, the guards didn't care.

"None."

"Alright, drive on through."

"Cheers mate."

I drove forward and waited for James to go through the same process. He also got through without trouble, and pulled in behind me as we waiting in between the sets of gates. It was a bit like an airlock, but they let you through once there were no aliens in the immediate vicinity. This would sometimes take hours, as they didn't like using up bullets and would usually wait until any antlions had moved away of their own accord.

As we waited in the darkness, I talked to James over the radio.

"So how much pot did you bring?" I said. Heidi flinched. I wasn't surprised. She'd just heard her boyfriend ask a guy who she was going out into the wild with about how much of an illegal substance he was carrying.

"Um... about five pounds." came the reply,

"Pounds?" Heidi and I said in unison,

"Yeah. I'm not leaving behind my whole stash. I've also got some seeds, and spores."

"Great. So you plan to turn the batch into a grow house."

"No. Well, maybe. But these seeds will last for years, they're in an airtight container. So hopefully I won't have to."

"Um... Harry? How long will we be on the coast for?" asked Olivia,

"Not a clue. Could be a couple of days, months, or even years. To be completely honest, I have very little idea what's gonna happen."

"What do you know?" asked Heidi,

"The Combine are coming."

"Who are the Combine?" asked Olivia over the radio,

"I don't know. I'm afraid I'm flying blind here, guys. But I've heard the vortigaunts talk about them, and they don't sound nice. Hope for the best, guys. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst."

"Oi, Harry, chuck on the TV. See if there's anything up."

I tuned my laptop onto the TV frequencies, and just as I gained reception, a loudspeaker squawked out a message.

"All clear for departure. Gates will open in three hundred seconds. When opened, gates will remain open for twenty-two seconds. Have a nice day."

"Really don't want to stall it..." I muttered. Unfortunately, James heard me. However he only got about halfway through his sentence, before the TV showed a news report.

"There have been reports of numerous unidentified aircraft. The authorities are telling people not to panic, however already small groups of people have already apparently taken to looting. We now go live to the United States President, Dr Graham Hensen, for an urgent press conference."

"James, you getting this?" I said,

"Yeah, this is heavy."

"Gates will open in two hundred and forty seconds." came the loudspeaker.

The most powerful man in the world, the President of America came onto the screen, behind his desk in the Oval Office.

"My fellow Americans," he began, "The question as to whether or not we are alone in the universe was answered several years ago. The vortigaunts, the head crabs, the antlions, all species from another planet. It seems that today-" there was a crash off camera. It swung around to reveal that several of the doors into the Oval Office had just burst open. About a dozen people in white body armor and strange helmets crowded in, and opened fire, using strange, dark weapons. There were screams, cries as journalists dived out of the way, and from the corner of the camera I saw the president get tackled by four of his Secret Service, who were already shooting back at these unknown assailants. Within seconds the conflict was over, every visible human dead, but not one of these masked figures. One dragged a kicking Hensen into the camera view, drew a knife, and sliced his throat.

The feed went dead.

"Holy fuck..."

"Gates will open in one hundred and twenty seconds."

I heard gunfire outside, along with noises similar to that of helicopters. There were shouts, cries, and an alarm went off. I grabbed my shotgun in one hand and held Heidi's hand with the other.

"Gates will open in ninety seconds."

There was pounding on my window. I swung the shotgun around, but it was one of the guards and a vortigaunt.

"Let us come with you! There's Combine out there, we gotta get the fuck out of the city!" he said, panicking. I thought about it.

"Gates will open in sixty seconds."

"Alright, hop into James'. He has more room."

James was driving a Kia. They did so, but opened the windows to talk to me.

"They're gonna try and cut the power, anything to stop people from escaping the city. Hope like hell the gates open before they manage it. If not, we're fucked. City mechanisms will automatically lock the inside doors anyway."

"Gates will open in thirty seconds."

I turned the car on, took off the handbrake. Put the clutch in. Moved into first.

"Gates will open in fifteen seconds."

"Get ready..." I muttered,

"Ten."

"Nine."

"Eight."

"Seven."

The gates began to slide open.

"Six."

"Five."

"Four."

"Three."

"Two."

I dropped the clutch and jammed on the accelerator. The RX-8 shot forward, just as there was an enormous explosion. The ceiling of the cavity between the gates collapsed, and the gates stopped moving.

We escaped, but just barely. My RX-8 got out fine, James lost a wing mirror and bumper, but they were unscathed. I accelerated, into second, then straight into fifth.

"You OK?" I asked Heidi. She was white as a ghost, but nodded. "James, bro, you all good?"

"Shit man, I think so. Look behind you."

I looked in the rear vision mirror. The city was under attack. Helicopters and jets soaring over head, fires, explosions, gun fire, and strange, tripod things like those from War of the Worlds.

I floored it. We were home free.


	2. Chapter 2

Alright, this chapter is shorter and really just a lot of back story. Not much action, but important nonetheless. I hadn't really thought this would amount to much, it was just an idea I came up with one evening. But thanks to the reviews I got, I decided to keep going.

Here's chapter two:

I floored it, getting up to 160 km/h in a matter of seconds, but slowed down to about 120 to be fair on James. He was, after all, in a Kia.

"So, ever killed any antlions before?" I asked Heidi, trying to take attention away from the current situation.

Now, with all due respect, Heidi wasn't your average girl. She had died black hair which often covered her eyes, making her look emo, was into death metal, and in high school had frequently bunked or turned up late to class. On the contrary, she was a very nice and happy individual, remarkably intelligent, and incredibly beautiful.

I'd started dating her as a bit of a rebound girl; I'd just been dumped by another girl who was pretty much the polar opposite of Heidi. I started talking to her, told her about the break up, and she was really nice about everything. Told me that she was there if I wanted to talk about it. I appreciated that, we started talking, and I really started to like her.

While a lot of relationships break up when leaving high school, this one didn't. We both went to university, studying different things, but at the same university at least. The only reason we hadn't moved in together officially was because neither of us could be bothered moving all our stuff.

Anyway, so she wasn't your average girl, so it was very possible she'd been antlion hunting before and just neglected to mention it to me.

"Nah, I haven't actually... I've meant to, never got round to it..."

"Well, once we're out of this, I'll take you hunting. Antlion meat isn't actually all that bad. Tastes kinda like fish... mixed with cockroaches. You just don't want to get a piece with the bullet in it. Not much of a problem if you go hunting with vortigaunts, cause they just shock the antlions to death."

Keeping one hand on the wheel, I took out a handgun and showed it to Heidi.

"Glock 17. 9mm rounds, seventeen in a magazine. Semi-auto, fires as fast as you can pull the trigger. Made out of a lightweight polymer. I recommend you hold it with two hands, for better aim and recoil reduction." I pulled back the slide, locked it and popped out the magazine. "Made from steel, coated in plastic. Holds seventeen rounds. To load, push the magazine in until it clicks, flick the lever here to snap the slide forward. It's now ready to fire."

I opened the window and fired a round. "Sixteen shots remaining." I said, handing her the gun. "This gun is now your most important possession. When we get a chance I'll give you some proper training and a better gun, but until then there's a very real possibility that we'll be attacked." I looked at Heidi straight in the eye. Not in a romantic way, in a completely serious way. "Sixteen shots. Aim and shoot." I gave her a few spare magazines just as the radio buzzed into life.

"Hey, we saw a shot from your car, you guys all good?" came James' voice.

"Just showing Heidi how to use a Glock. Is everyone in your car armed?"

"All but Olivia. I'll find her a nine mil."

"Where are you guys headed?" came the voice of the soldier. I'd forgotten about him and the vortigaunt.

"My father's house on the coast. He's going to meet us there in a couple of days. Hopefully. We'll be swinging by a friend's on the way, pick up a few things. You're free to come with us the whole way or part of the way, but try to impede us, change our course, or take over and we will kill you." I wasn't joking around. I was high on adrenaline, transfixed on getting the hell out of there.

We'd managed to get out of the city unscathed, I'd saved my girlfriend, my best friend and his girlfriend, a soldier and a vortigaunt, and we were armed to the teeth and prepared for pretty much anything. Only now did I actually think about what exactly was going on.

"OK, guys, let's work this out." I said over the radio, "We've been attacked by some sort of alien race, completely unprovoked. We don't know if this is an international, national or local attack."

"They are The Combine." came the gravelly voice of the vortigaunt, "They move throughout the galaxy to further their conquest. This attack is international."

"There have been reports of portal storms all night. I spent most of my shift listening to the radio, and there are far more than usual. I'm also subscribed to NASA updates, there's been nothing on unidentified craft entering Earth's atmosphere. They must have teleported in." said the soldier. Clearly, he was more than just a mindless grunt.

"They destroyed the city gate. They want to keep people inside, it'll give them more of a stranglehold. That was done within seconds of the first combat. Clearly they know our defenses. They've been scouting us out for a while now." said James. He'd always been into war games, he understood war. He understood strategies. He understood tactics. This guy really was a modern day Sun Tzu.

"They attacked at night. This is an invasion, they don't want it to turn into a war. They want to get us unexpectedly, leave us no time to prepare. This is a big planet, it takes a lot of resources to take over an entire planet. Their forces are probably stretched as thin as they're gonna get at the moment. So if a counter attack were to be launched it would have to be soon." said Heidi. I nearly crashed the car. I would have never expected her to know so much about war and combat.

"They killed the president. The very fact they managed to get into the White House is phenomenal, but it reinforces that they've been planning this." said Olivia.

"So all in all," I said, "We're screwed. James, can you pick up the pace? I don't think there'll be any cops around."

We began driving along at about 130 km/h. Things were tense. The city was out of sight, but every so often there would be a portal storm, or an explosion, and occasionally we'd see a jet or helicopter fly over head. Fortunately, though, we remained unscathed.

After about an hour of driving, we came to one of the small towns that dotted the countryside. There used to be a lot of these places, but after the aliens showed up most people migrated to the cities. I hadn't planned on stopping, but there were floodlights on in the town center, a few alien helicopters and vehicles, and a crowd of about forty. There were also about a dozen figures wearing blue-ish body armor and holding weapons. They were blocking our way, and there was no other road. I pulled over before the town wall. The walls and gates of this town were simply fences, nothing compared to the cities.

"James," I said over the radio, "We have to get through there, but those things look like tanks, and those are helicopters. If we drive through there, we're fucked. We're fucked up the ass."

"I know. But I don't see any other way through."

"So let's do it!" spoke up Heidi enthusiastically, "If you floor it, we just might make it."

"Not a chance."

"Wouldn't work."

"They'd shoot us before we got two steps."

"Nah, nah, nah, hear me out. Both of you turn your high beams on, get up to about 150, roll down your windows and shoot out them and sound the horn. You'll take them by surprise, and by the time they've worked out what happened, we'll be at the house."

"Well..." I said,

"No, Harry! I knew you were whipped, but this is ridiculous! We're not risking our lives for that!" yelled James and Olivia,

"Look, I don't see any other option. They're gonna work out we're here sooner or later."

He was silent for a minute. "Fuck you, Harry, you crazy son of a bitch. Let's do it!"


	3. Chapter 3

Here you go, Chapter three. Hope you enjoy it. Remember to review, it really helps and convinces me to keep writing. I'll probably keep this going for a while, I've got a bunch of ideas which I've not managed to write into any of my other stories (or I just gave up on them), that might be perfect for this one. Time will tell.

**Chapter Three**

"OK, Heidi, if we get shot and I die, I want you to grab the wheel and do your best to steer the car. Don't, under any circumstances, try to fight them off or anything. Surrender if need be. I don't want you getting hurt. I care for you too much." I told her as we got ready for the drive through. Now, in retrospect, this probably wasn't the best thing to say. See, Heidi wasn't the sort of girl who wanted me to protect her with my life. Put it this way; with my ex girlfriend I always figured that if there were ever a zombie apocalypse, I'd go and save her. With Heidi, I'd find her, but then I'd toss her a 9mm and we'd fight zombies together.

"Oh, shut the fuck up, Harry. You know me." she gave a fierce grin, "No way in hell am I surrendering. If you die, I'm going down with you."

"That's why I love you. Oi, James, you guys ready?"

"Just a sec. OK, the vort and guard, who's name is Jim, are gonna shoot out the window. I'm guessing Heidi wants to, as well?"

"Of course I do!" spoke up Heidi. I shook my head in desperation. As much as I loved Heidi, she could be pretty reckless at times.

"Alright, let's go over the plan one more time..."

Two minutes later, I put the car into first as James took the handbrake off. Then we floored it.

Into second, into third. The town; two hundred meters away. Into fourth, one hundred meters.

Fifty meters. I wound down the windows and flicked on my high beams. Sounded the horn.

Into the town. People scattered. Heidi shot out the window, not aiming at anything in particular. I put the clutch in, now we were drifting, losing speed. Through the rear view mirror I saw the muzzle flashes from James' car, and heard the shots. No one had shot back at us yet. I was slowing down, only at 75km, then when I was in the middle of everything I moved into fifth, dropped the clutch, and floored it.

Before I knew it, we were out of the town and speeding along the countryside once more. I slowed down from 175km to about 150, to allow James to catch up.

"We made it! I can't believe we made it!" exclaimed James over the radio.

We were all unharmed. There hadn't been a single shot fired by the Combine.

"Son, I don't think we're out of the woods yet..." said the soldier, and as if on cue, there was a sound of rotors as a monstrous black helicopter flew into view. It was coming at us.

"Heidi, reload!" I shouted, "James, floor it! Guys, I don't think we can shoot it down. Can we outrun it?"

"Not a fucking chance!" yelled the soldier, Jim, "It's a fucking helicopter!"

Then it opened fire.

A storm of massive bullets rained down on us, aimed in front of James' car. Countless slugs crashed into the road, spraying up asphalt and stones, causing James to swerve all over the road. James was swearing, Olivia was screaming, Jim was doing a mix of the two, only the vortigaunt remained silent.

"That was a warning shot!" roared Jim over the radio, "Next will hit us! Alac, can you do anything?"

Alac? What was Jim talking about?

There was a humming noise, and through the rear view mirror I saw James' car light up. The vortigaunt was doing something with electricity. I'd seen them power things before, radios and TV's, but what was this one doing?

The helicopter let out another burst of rounds. They smashed into the roof of his car, shattering windows and firing off sparks.

There was a piercing scream over the radio. It was Olivia.

"What?" I shouted, "What happened?"

"Hit in the thigh!" yelled back Jim, as the car continued to light up and flash from the vortigaunt. The flashes were getting brighter and more frequent. Something was about to happen.

Just as the helicopter got ready to let off another volley of shots, the vortigaunt climbed halfway out the window and let loose a massive bolt of lightening. The car rocked on it's axles, the displays flickered, and as the bolt hit the helicopter, there was an almighty explosion as the rotor broke off and flew upwards. The rest of the helicopter hung there for a few seconds before, as though in slow motion, it fell.

When it collided with the earth, it was like someone had let off a nuclear bomb. There was another explosion, a tremendous crash, and the ground shoot like jelly.

We were home free.

"James, are you all OK?"

"Olivia has been hit in the thigh. We've gotta get this sorted!"

"James, floor it. Jim, put pressure on the wound, slow the bleeding."

I don't know how, but through my small amount of medical knowledge picked up from my father, and sheer good fortune, we managed to stop the bleeding and hopefully do enough in the short term to save her leg. She was in a lot of pain, and unless we acted soon it would probably get infected, but she wouldn't bleed to death.

"Harry, what do we do now? There's no way she'll survive the journey to the coast! We've gotta do something else!" James was having a fit. It was horrible for him, seeing a loved one in pain and not only being unable to do anything about it, but being forced to keep driving.

"Louis's. We're heading there. It's about fifteen minutes from here. It's a full complex. About thirty people live there, space for two hundred. Enough supplies to last two years. Entirely self sufficient. Most of the complex is underground, and has been specifically built so that none of it is visible aerially. No signs lead to it, the only roads are concealed. Louis spared no expense."

Louis was one of the members of our group back in high school. Him and I had always been engrossed in the idea of survival after a disaster, it was the origins to this plan. He'd always wanted a section in the middle of nowhere, like my father's, and now he finally had it.

Back in high school, I'd been the one in our group who everyone had known would become an eccentric millionaire. I was destined to be successful, it seemed. At fifteen I already owned and operated a small business online. It wasn't Microsoft, but it paid the bills. Unfortunately, my dreams of millions never came into fruition. It was Louis, the guy who's parents smoked weed with him, Louis who only wore shoes when he had to, Louis who was a complete asshole until you got to know him, that became the millionaire. And what did he do with his millions? Not buy a bus and stock it with all the best technologies like I'd planned, instead he spent tens of millions on this complex.

I wasn't resentful. A bit jealous, but I was pleased with my lifestyle. And Louis, like me, was incredibly anal about making sure our group didn't fade away after high school. We all stayed in contact, even having our own computer network which we used to coordinate get-togethers, chat, or just store files. Louis, being the rich guy, paid for it and I, being the nerd, operated it.

Plans had been made for the apocalypse. Louis had his section, I had my father's, another member, Leon, had a section up North, and the others would make their way to these places. We had a HAM radio network set up for just such an occasion. Every possible variable had been accounted for, checked, and re-checked. From nuclear war, to zombies, to a viral outbreak, to alien invasion, we would survive. Well, that was the plan.

"So why not just stay there?" asked Heidi, fiddling with an empty magazine.

"Recon. We have groups of people all over the countryside, able to meet if necessary, but in contact over the airwaves all the time. Multiple bases is safer, if one goes down, the others remain. And Louis might have been attacked. We'll go there, restock, refuel, get Olivia's leg fixed up, get some extra supplies, maybe crash for a couple of hours, then hit the road again. Assuming he's alive."

The journey continued in silence, the few attempts at conversation petering out quickly. James was too stressed to talk and Olivia was in pain, and I was just concentrating on getting to Louis' without getting attacked.

Heidi, hating silences, rummaged around in the glove box until she found an Iron Maiden album. She put it on. The Final Frontier came blasting out of the powerful speakers. I pulled it out without a word and put in a classical guitar album.

"When you're driving, you choose the music." I said. I was normally into heavy metal, but not tonight. It was 4:30 in the morning. Once again, this wasn't the best thing to say to Heidi.

"Right. I'll drive then."

"You're not driving, Heidi. You don't even know how to drive manual." I said calmly.

"Well, explain it then."

"Better idea. Once we're not maybe being pursued by an alien species that wants to kill us and already half killed my friend's girlfriend, I'll teach you how to drive. For now, just let me drive." I replied, a bit snappishly. Heidi fell silent.

Ten minutes later I spoke up again, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap. I'm just kinda stressed at the moment."

She smiled at me, "It's OK. I understand." she held my hand.

It was another seven or eight minutes before we turned onto Louis' property. It was a concealed dirt road, you'd miss it if you didn't know exactly where it was. I didn't see them, but I knew Louis' sentries would already know we were there. Presently, we came to a gate. It looked like your average farm gate, slightly run down, not all that stable, but it wasn't. In reality, it was steel reinforced, on rollers, electrified, and heavily guarded. Beyond and before it were spike strips concealed in the ground that could be deployed in less than a second. I drove up to the gate, put the car in neutral and put the handbrake on. Then I waited. Stared straight ahead, kept my shotgun visible, but not in my hand. Both hands on the wheel. Heidi, who had never been here, was naturally a bit spooked.

"Shouldn't we... I dunno, honk the horn or something? To get their attention?"

"They know we're here. They've probably got high powered sniper rifles pointed at our heads. But don't get freaked out."

A heavily armored man holding a massive gun and covered in all sorts of gear dropped lightly from a tree near the car and walked to the car. I rolled down the window.

"Harry." he said. It wasn't a question. "I'll just have to ID you."

"OK, but make it quick. My friend in the other car has been shot."

"Yes Sir."

He snapped a photo of me from a device, then seconds later touched his ear. There was a small ear phone in there, probably someone from the Control Room.

"OK, drive straight up to the office, they're expecting you. Do not stop for anyone or anything. If the blast doors don't open IMMEDIATELY, get out of there. Take the number two exit route." he strode off, and the gate opened. We drove on.

"The whole place must be on alert. They always ID you, Louis is really paranoid, but that bit about not stopping for anyone or anything. They must suspect their security has been compromised." I explained to Heidi.

The entrance to the base was a simple set of blast doors leading underground. They opened immediately as we approached, and as soon as we were inside they closed. We were now in a brightly lit underground road, which stretched on for a few hundred meters. It ended in a carpark filled with Hummers, 4WDs and a tank. I parked beside the tank, just to annoy Louis. Just as I was helping Heidi out, Louis came striding towards me.

"Harry, my friend! How ya been, you crazy mother fucker?" He wrapped me up into a massive bear hug. Louis was a massive guy, often resembling a bear, and I was pretty scrawny back then, so naturally it was pretty amusing to watch.

"Louis, my man!" was all I could say. As peculiar as he was, Louis was a great host.

Releasing me, he turned to Heidi, "Ah, the lovely Heidi. Good to see you again." he said, kissing her hand, "James!" he then roared as James got out of the car. James ignored him, going round to help Olivia. "Oh shit," he said, noticing something was wrong, "What happened?"

"She got shot. I'll explain later. For the moment, she needs help."

"MEDIC!" roared Louis,

"Let's go inside." I said, weakly, "I'll get my shotgun."

We were all safe and alive. We had reached Louis's complex.

Then, out of sheer emotional exhaustion, I passed out.


	4. Chapter 4

A lot of dialogue in this chapter, not much action, mainly back story and bridging. Hope you enjoy it, I'll have the next chapter up in a few days.

Also, there was recently a massive earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. I experienced it first hand. It was pretty scary. Gave me lots of ideas for my writing, though.

Remember to read and review!

I came to about fifteen minutes later, still exhausted, a pounding headache, on the couch in Louis's residence. My head was on Heidi's lap, and she was stroking my hair.

I sat up. "What happened?"

"You've not been out long." said Louis, sitting in a leather arm chair across from us. The soldier and vortigaunt were nowhere to be seen, James and Olivia were sitting side by side on another couch, "We got Olivia sorted out, the bullet only grazed her, I've just been explaining to them what I know."

I cut him off, "I need a cigarette. Mind if I smoke in here?"

Louis pointed to a vent on the ceiling. "Extraction fans, my good man. Not much fun to crawl around in, but yeah, you can smoke."

I took out a pack and lit one. "Anyone want one?" James and Heidi each had one. Neither of them was a regular smoker, Heidi would sometimes have a cigarette when I was having one, and James would generally only smoke when he was drinking. I saw a scotch on the table beside him.

After a few good puffs, I spoke again. "Talk to me, Louis. What's going on?"

"We've been picking up radio chatter, all over the world. This crisis is international. These... Combine... have coordinated a massive attack, striking the population centers all at once. Most countries have had their defense systems fail."

For a second time, I stopped him, "We know that. Are you safe here?"

"I think so. There are no records of this facility, and we've set up everything so that it can't be detected by even the best of today's reconnaissance technologies. Although, we don't know what the Combine have. I do, however, believe that we could hold off an attack from them."

"Alright. We're gonna keep moving. The soldier and the vortigaunt, they're free to come with us, but if they don't want to, can they stay here?"

"Of course. People will likely start turning up soon. I believe there are thirty people on the register to come here in the event of... this. We have plenty of room."

"Good. Now, it's... five AM now, we've got about an hour and a half of night time left, and I'm kinda hesitant to be driving in daylight. However, we can't possibly keep driving now. I propose we crash here for a few hours, then spend the rest of the day prepping ourselves better to continue to the coast."

"Yeah, I wouldn't recommend you drive right now, either. You don't look so good."

It was true. I'd been up since 6am the day before, had only had a few hours sleep before then, and I think I was coming down with the flu. I'd been running on adrenaline the last few hours, but I couldn't sleep yet.

We unloaded our stuff from the cars, the plan was to repack everything more tidily and replace some of the items. I located my pack of codeine in my apocalypse bag and swallowed two dry. When that was done, we left the bags in the car park, Louis took us to the communications room.

"We've not yet contacted any of the group. Just you guys, and the rest of the night has been spent listening to chatter. I'm assuming Leon is on his way up North, so I'll try his radio. But for now, let's give Anna a call."

Anna was another one of the member's of our group. She'd never been as concerned about a disaster as we had, but she had listened to our plans.

Using a secure line and a bunch of complex methods, Louis's communications expert managed to call Anna's cellphone. It rang eleven times before she answered.

There was a burst of static and a lot of background noise. "Hello?" she yelled into the phone.

"Anna? Anna, what's going on?" I spoke into the microphone,

"Harry, is that you? We're under attack, where are you?"

"I'm at Louis's. What are you doing?"

"Met up with Thomas. He gave me a gun, now we're desperately fighting them!"

"Anna, we don't want you getting hurt. If you can, get yourself and Thomas out of the city. Head for Leon's up North, or Louis's."

"I'll do my best! Hey, I'll chuck on Thomas."

There was a brief pause.

"Hey, this is Thomas. What can you tell me?"

Thomas was another member of our group. He's always been pretty reckless, and was more concerned with killing other people than protecting his own life.

"Thomas, this is no game. You've gotta get out of the city!"

"I'll see what I can do." I heard an explosion, "Oh fuck, gotta go. Good luck, man!"

He hung up.

We tuned the HAM to the band that had been agreed on for this sort of event.

"Hello? Hello, anyone here?"

"This is Leon. I'm alive and well. Who is this?"

"This is Louis. I've got James and Harry and Heidi and Olivia here, what's happening with you?"

"I'm at my shack. I've heard the news, but nothing that you won't already know. I take it you guys are safe?"

"Yeah, we're fine. A bit shaken, I hear James and Harry encountered a bit of trouble on the way here, but everyone's alive. Alright, there's lots to do, so I'm gonna go. Over and out."

He turned the radio off.

"Alright, I'm exhausted. I gotta get a few hours sleep. Louis, have you got a spare bed for Heidi and me?"

"Of course. Right this way."

He led us to one of the rooms, giving James and Olivia the one beside ours. It was just like a hotel, apart from the lack of windows. A nice couch, double bed, en suite bathroom and a desk. There was no TV, but there was an antique radio. Just like in Louis's residence, there was a vent in the ceiling, along with an ashtray on the desk. I barely took all of this in, dropping my bag and falling onto the bed beside Heidi.

"It's been a long day..." she said. I hugged her closely,

"It has. Let's get some sleep. I love you."

"Love you too."

As tired as I was, I barely slept. I got about half an hour of sleep, but was too stressed to sleep well. I dreamed of fire, gunshots, helicopters, death. At 6am, I gave up, took two more codeine and got up.

Finally, I had a chance to get properly set up. Knowing this complex well, I went to the carpark and retrieved my sub-apocalypse bag from the RX-8. I always kept this bag in my car, and it kept the less essential items; clothes. I took this bag back to the room, Heidi was still fast asleep, and got changed.

I put on a better pair of jeans, a decent belt and clipped my knife to the belt. Put a pair of hiking boots on. Loose t-shirt. Kevlar vest. Shoulder holster, desert eagle. Four spare magazines. Leather jacket back on. Back holster, shotgun in it. Twenty spare shells on my belt. Pack of cigarettes in one pocket, codeine in the other. All my other supplies in the main apocalypse bag. I was carrying a lot of weight, but it would be worth it. When all this was done, I gave the sleeping Heidi a kiss on the forehead and left the room.

Louis was in the main congregation area. Like an employee's lounge, but much nicer. He was sitting at the bar with two others, all sipping drinks and talking quietly. I sauntered over, climbed over the bar and poured myself a whiskey.

"I've got a feeling we're in for a rough few days."


	5. Chapter 5

"_Have you heard what they said on the news today, have you heard what is coming to us all? That the world as we know it will be coming to an end, have you heard, have you heard?"_

We were listening to music as we threw the boxes back and forth. As well as preparing our vehicles for the rest of the journey, Louis wanted to get his vehicles ready for an emergency evacuation and combat. There were eight vehicles he wanted to get fueled up and ready, and along with ours, that created a lot of work. Since I wasn't sleeping, I agreed to help.

We'd decided to only take one car, and that was the RX-8. It had been decided that the soldier and vortigaunt would stay here. This was slightly disappointing, while most people from my background hated vortigaunts, I'd always quite liked them. The additional firepower would also be useful.

Into it we loaded a small box of food, enough for two days sustenance for each of us. We also got two tanks of water, totaling 12 liters. The tank was filled and tires replaced. With any luck we wouldn't need any of this stuff, as it would only be a few more hours to my father's house, and there were plenty of supplies there.

Loaded my apocalypse bag back into my car, and James' marijuana and seeds into the glove box. Then came the weapons.

"Alright, Harry, take me through it. What've you got?" Louis said, as the other employees and he stopped work.

"Haven't been through them all, and haven't tried them in a few years. But..."

We retrieved the big black bag from the other side of the car park and I unzipped it.

"Twelve gauge automatic shotgun." I said, taking it out, showing them, and putting it on the ground, "MP5 Submachine gun. Attached grenade launcher. M4 carbine. 9mm Uzi. Benelli M4 Super 90 twelve gauge shotgun. Bolt action hunting rifle. Spring and pump air rifle, one thousand FPS, .177 cal. Mossberg 500 Mariner. Two H&K MP7A1's. AK-47 Kalashnikov. Glock 17, Two Desert Eagles."

"That's a lot of guns. How did you get all of them?" asked one of the men.

"Black market, Louis paid. We put them in this bag then jammed them behind the drywall in James' house."

"How much ammunition have you got for each one?"

"Three magazines for each semi, four spare for each handgun, two hundred shotgun shells. But it won't be enough. Care to lend us some more?"

"Don't know how much I can give you now... But we've got a convoy coming in about half an hour. They fought their way out of the city. I hear it's quite the brigade, about fifty of them, all armed to the teeth. They're bringing supplies, ammunition, probably some better weapons. We'll be sweet then. For now, I can probably hook you up with some ammo."

We lugged the heavy bag to the armory and Louis managed to find the right magazines and ammunition for most of the guns, giving me more than double what I already had. He also provided me with a couple of boxes of loose rounds, for in the long term. When this was done, I had more firepower at my disposal than some small countries. Just as we were packing it all back into the car, one of the men's radio's buzzed into life.

"Possible intruders. Multiple unidentified vehicles, one helicopter. Vehicles appear armored. Possibly hostile. First car reaching checkpoint. ... We have multiple hostile intruders! Head vehicle has not stopped at the checkpoint and is now breaking down gateway. Lockdown the facility, I repeat: lock down the facility!"

"Everyone, weapons!" ordered Louis, grabbing his radio, "Comms? We are under attack, close the doors and lock down the place. Now!" then to me, "Harry, get the others. Get them armed and dangerous, we gotta get you out of here."

I grabbed the Uzi, shotgun and M4. Not the best weapons for two untrained people, Olivia and Heidi, but they'd have to cope. With any luck they wouldn't have to fire a single shot.

Just as I was sprinting into the dorms, an alarm went off, speaking of the attack and for everyone to make sure they're armed. I burst into the room as Heidi sat up, terrified.

"Heidi, we have to go! Now!"

"What's going on?"

"We're under attack! Come on!"

She got out of bed and I handed her the Uzi, "Aim and shoot. Just like the Glock. Keep the muzzle down, the recoil on this is a bitch. Let's go!"

Out into the corridor, James and Olivia were standing, James grasping Olivia's hand and both looking completely clueless.

"James! Shotgun, now." I tossed him the loaded shotgun, giving Olivia the M4. The M4 was a larger gun than the Uzi, so it made sense that Heidi, being the smaller of the two girls, had the smaller gun, "Aim and pull the trigger." I told Olivia, "Aim away from face."

"I haven't got any shells!" interjected James,

"It's loaded. Here, have a few spares." I dropped a few from my belt into his hand, pulling my shotgun from its holster, "Lock and load, guys. Let's go."

We returned to the car park, where half the people were, all armed and facing the entrance road. It was one of two entrances into the base. It was one of about six exits.

"Convoy is fifteen minutes away, we've gotta hold the entrances 'till it gets here!" called Louis.

Things began to get tense. Everyone was checking and rechecking their weapon, looking anxiously at their comrades. I saw the soldier and vortigaunt we'd saved over near Louis, both ready for combat.

Down the road there was a noise at the blast doors, it sounded like a powerful drill. Soon things would begin. Louis crept over and whispered to us, "We've got to get your guys out. When things are in full swing, you'll need to get in your car and take exit route four. Harry, you know the way?" I nodded, "Good. I think we'll be OK, as long as we can hold them off until the convoy gets here. Those doors, while they might get through the first set, we can block them off permanently later. I'm talking solid titanium blocked off later. For now, we have to fight them off. I don't want you guys getting harmed, OK? As soon as I give the order, get in your car and take exit route four. Then drive like there's no tomorrow, because if you don't; there won't be."

I shook Louis' hand, "Don't you dare die on me, Louis. I'll be really pissed if you do."

There was a thud, like a hammer on metal, and the sound of radios squawking. This was it.

A dozen masked soldiers jogged down the passageway, all wielding large weapons, probably some sort of assault rifle.

We opened fire on them.

Louis' complex was populated by both trained soldiers and regular civilians. Everyone who lived there permanently served a purpose, be it cooking or medicine. All the guards had spent at least three years in the military, and the civilians all had some firearms training. They were all assigned weapons and strategies in the event of a firefight. Now these plans would came into action.

These Combine may have had superior weapons, but we'd have the upper hand. We knew the battlefield; the car park, and we had cover; vehicles, crates, walls. The Combine were out in the open.

Bullets were flying everywhere. The invaders quickly returned fire, but they were sloppy and unorganized. Several stood stupidly in the middle of the road, torn to shreds in seconds. Others jumped and dived, dodging our bullets and shooting back with startling accuracy.

I hadn't fired a shot. This wasn't paintball or laser tag; it wasn't about the number of shots you got in. It was about survival, and an empty shotgun would be useless. Heidi was beside me, teeth gritted, fiercely clutching the Uzi.

This was remarkable: we were ripping these guys apart. I saw only two of our men go down. There were three attackers left and I still hadn't fired a shot. The gunfire began to decrease. People were aiming their shots more precisely now, the three remaining soldiers having taken shelter behind boxes.

One poked his head up, but it fell just as quickly when a high caliber bullet pierced it's skull.

Another died when he tried to leap to a better point of cover. Thirty or forty rounds riddled his body.

Finally, the last one, sensing defeat, began firing short bursts of rounds out. We all took cover again, but a few shots must have been aimed at Heidi, as they struck inches away from her. That was the last straw.

I don't remember much after that. I was later told that I stood up and yelled something along the lines of "No one shoots at my girlfriend!" and fired at him. While I do recall being angry and yelling at that guy, I don't recall striding towards his box, firing another round anytime there was movement, then leaning over the top and blasting him in the helmet.

However, I did suddenly find myself standing out in the open with a few vehicles and several dozen more soldiers running down the tunnel towards us. Someone tackled me just as dozens of alien rounds filled the space where my head hand been seconds before.

Now the tides had turned. We were hopelessly outnumbered and over powered. Bullets were flying everywhere as I made my way back to Heidi who was now firing bursts from the Uzi. As I passed Louis he yelled to me over the gunfire, "Convoy is five minutes away! We've got to hold them off until then!"

It wasn't looking good. The vehicles; massive, shiny, alien trucks, were firing everywhere, and these soldiers seemed better trained than the last batch.

I jammed three more shells into my shotgun. Blasted a Combine in the back, then again in the head when he fell. Pulled out my Desert Eagle and started trying to shoot the enemies in the head. I was a pretty good shot, and killed three in the first magazine. Well, I knocked three down, I don't know if they were dead.

Heidi got in a few good shots. She later told me that when she'd lived in South Africa she'd gone hunting quite often. We'd been dating for years, and she'd simply forgotten to mention it. Though, to be fair, she had used a rifle, not an Uzi.

"Three minutes!" yelled Louis over the gunfire, "We can take this!"

There were no more than fifteen of us left. We were all running out of ammunition, I'd already had to give James another six shells. Olivia had emptied her magazine, James had given her his pistol. Heidi was using her Glock, but the Uzi still had a few rounds in it. I had one magazine left for my Desert Eagle, and about five shells for my shotgun.

I shot a Combine in the leg. Four shells remaining. Took him out with a blast from my Desert Eagle. Seven shots remaining in that.

Headshot another one. Missed. Missed a second time. The third clipped his mask, and he dropped like a stone. Four shots remaining.

One was coming from the right. "Heidi, Uzi!" I yelled. She passed it to me. I put six rounds in the guy's chest before the gun clicked from an empty magazine. He stumbled but didn't fall. Casting the useless Uzi aside, I used my shotgun to finish him.

There was a roar of vehicles, and at that moment two Harley Davidson's came speeding around the corner, followed closely by a Hummer and behind that two 4WD's. Shots from automatic rifles came from the back of the motorbikes and the windows of the cars. Next came a massive Mack truck, followed by another Hummer, 4WD's and two Harley's. It was an amazing sight.

The Mack truck jammed on it's brakes and went into an almost horizontal slide, totaling one of the Combine trucks, and crushing three soldiers. The Harley's in front slowed, the soldiers on the back leaping off and annihilating more Combine.

Within two minutes the convoy had ended the attack. We had survived.


	6. Chapter 6

Immediately everyone went to work, helping the wounded, clearing away the dead, retrieving the Combine's weapons and most of all closing the solid titanium blast doors. We briefly talked to the leader of the convoy, then the four of us said our goodbyes and got into the RX-8. Me driving, Heidi beside me, James behind me and Olivia behind Heidi.

Putting it into first and driving over to Louis, I rolled down the window, "Alright, we gotta go." We shook hands in the way that we'd created several years back. James leaned over and did the same. "We'll call you when we get there." I told him,

"Make sure you do. Good luck."

"See you on the other side."

I rolled up the window, revved the engine loudly for the benefit of Louis, drove to the exit tunnel in first, then put it back into neutral as I waited for the doors to open.

They slowly began to roll open. I put the clutch in and eased into first. Half the base were watching, so I didn't want to stall it. Had to do this right. I revved the engine. The doors were halfway open. The needle on the rev clock was moving up. Higher and higher. Three quarters open.

I put a final burst of power into the accelerator, dropped the clutch, and we shot forward. I changed into second, burst outside and drove calmly down the road. It was light out, and was going to be a beautiful day.

"Hey, Harry, you still got your apocalypse CD?" asked James jokingly. I did. I put it in, and ACDC "Thunderstruck" began playing.

Everyone was armed, everyone but me was rested, and a few minutes later, everyone was fed. Despite not generally smoking in this car, I lit up a cigarette, the others all following suit, including Olivia. The next fifteen minutes were spent trying to teach her to smoke properly.

The journey went pretty smoothly for the next hour or so. We'd begun getting into the mountain ranges. They weren't exactly the Himalayas, but they had snow on them most of the year. Lucky for the car, this was one of the times that they didn't.

There was a small town at the top of the pass we'd be taking. It was larger than the town that we'd had to pass earlier, but wasn't massive. It was rich, though, being the only town on the only road through the mountains for miles in either direction. There were a couple of incredibly expensive motels and a store with over priced goods. A couple of houses, an internet cafe, petrol station, and train station.

I'd heard that recently they'd been having some problems with headcrabs, apparently there'd been a portal storm and dozens had turned up soon after. There hadn't been much on the story, though, so it was probably just the media making it seem far worse that it actually was.

As the town began to come into view, I saw all the lights on.

"Guns, everyone..." I muttered. There was a clicking as the weapons were loaded and cocked. There was a nagging sensation in the back of my mind, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Hey, bro, you sure we're safe?" asked James cautiously,

"No. Not in the slightest..."

I put the car into second, slowing down as we began to near the town center.

"Hey, what's that noise?" spoke up Olivia just as James was lighting another cigarette. He dropped the lighter and swore as he then dropped the cigarette too. I turned off the CD player, passed James a spare lighter, then opened the window. There was an all too familiar thudding noise. Looking up, another monstrous helicopter flew overhead.

"Fuck!" I yelled, putting in the clutch and yanking on the handbrake. The RX-8 skidded to a halt.

Of course this town would be invaded. It was a crucial part of the country. I pulled the shotgun from my back holster and kept it on my lap.

"What do we do now?" demanded Heidi.

Into reverse. Three point turn. Into first. Ease onto the accelerator, ease off the clutch. Gunfire.

Stalled the engine. No one laughed.

Into neutral, started the engine. Into first. We were away.

Second.

Third.

More gunfire. I saw muzzle flashes.

Into fourth. Back on the main road, out of the town.

Fifth. Still flooring it. Rev count rising.

"Harry, what's going on?" came the voices of James and Olivia in unison.

Into sixth gear.

"Harry?"

Pushed in the cigarette lighter and pulled a cigarette from my tin.

"Harry?"

"They've taken the town. Can't get through that way."

"They- fuck!" exclaimed James. The lighter popped out.

I took a deep puff. "Only other route is three days drive worth."

"So what do we do?"

"We find a place to pull over, then we plan our next move."

We drove for another half hour until I was sure we were a safe distance from the Combine. In that time I must have smoked five cigarettes. We barely talked. I kept my shotgun on my lap, one hand on the wheel, one hand on Heidi's thigh. Eventually we stopped in a small park by a lake.

"So we're here." I said, putting a map onto a bench and putting out my cigarette on the point. "We need to get here. Problem is, the only two routes are here... and here. We know here is already under Combine control... Now, this route goes over this bridge, if they're as smart as they seem they'll have knocked it out..."

The next few minutes were spent planning what to do before Olivia suggested trying to find the news on my laptop TV. After some channel surfing, I found a fuzzy news station,

"_...We now go live to the scene..."_

"_Tom, I'm standing here at the start of a guerrilla war. We've been invaded by some sort of alien species, with technologies far superior to ours. It's still unclear what's being done by the government, but as of yet there's been no suggestion of organized military aid. Since the attacks began at around 2:30 this morning, citizens have been fighting using whatever weapons they can muster. I would like to state that-" _

"_Dan, I'm gonna have to cut you off here for a second. Word is that Dr Wallace Breen is about to make a statement."_

"Breen... Breen..." James muttered, "Where have I heard that name before?"

The camera cut to a man with white hair, a white beard and brown suit. _"My name is Wallace Breen. I am the ex-administrator of a government-run, top secret research facility. I now urge my fellow humans to stop their pointless struggle. We're fighting a losing battle here, I have worked out a deal with these Combine."_

"A deal?" we all said in unison,

"_On behalf of myself and the rest of earth, I hereby surrender."_

He paused for the outrage that was no doubt breaking out all over the planet. We were included.

"_This is our only option. Any person continuing to rebel will be punished swiftly and powerfully."_

**Hope you enjoyed it. Another sort of "filler" chapter, but with some important information. Remember to read AND review!**


	7. Chapter 7

We drove for another four hours. The roads we took were seldom traveled on, so not only did we not encounter anyone, we were probably pretty safe from the Combine. We weren't, however, safe from aliens. I splattered quite a few antlions, and Heidi even spotted an antlion guard once. All of us were smoking now, and in that four hours managed to go through three packs. Heidi did her best to find a radio station, but there was only static.

James and I managed to plan a route we thought would be safe, but it required going through another large town. It wasn't exactly a nice town, but hopefully it would be a bit safer now that the fighting had stopped. At least, now that we'd been told the fighting had stopped.

It was disturbing, driving into the town. There were masked soldiers on every corner, bullet holes riddled every car and building, windows were smashed, blood everywhere. We were the only moving car. Injured, defeated humans moved quickly through the streets, slouching, terrified. I couldn't blame them; it wasn't uncommon for a Combine to smack someone over the head with some sort of electrified baton if they strayed too close. Some got up and ran off, others just dropped like a sack of potatoes. The Combine would bark out an order and a few more enslaved citizens would run over and drag the corpse away, not making eye contact.

We saw the occasional fight, someone breaking ranks and attacking their enslavers. The occasional shot was fired, but all resistance was quickly snuffed out. As we drove slowly, often having to change our route due to roads blocked by debris or Combine vehicles, everyone stared at us. The Combine on alert, not expecting anyone to be driving, the citizens hoping for aid.

When the RX-8 had belonged to my father, he'd had the back windows tinted, but not the front ones. "Don't look at them." I kept muttering to Heidi, keeping my eyes fixed on the road ahead.

"Where are we going?" James asked, hand on his shotgun. It was concealed under his jacket, we weren't showing off that we were armed, but he was ready for combat.

"We need supplies, we need news, we need fuel. I know a guy."

We eventually stopped at a pub. It was a massive one, more of a club than anything, but it was pretty seedy. It had boomed from the original alien invasion; they'd started using antlions and headcrabs for sport. I wasn't sure that I wanted to leave the car outside, unguarded, but I'd need James as back up, and couldn't leave the girls outside on their own. Not only did I not trust the Combine, but I didn't trust the citizens either.

The pub was the same as ever; loud music playing, filled with drunks, smoke making it hard to see. But today there were Combine posted around the place, all holding large assault rifles. I knew exactly where my contact would be so, holding Heidi close, I led the others to the upstairs part of the pub. There, at a small table, sat the old, shabby, bearded man with a bottle of vodka. He sat alone, occasionally taking a shot. I made a beeline for him.

"Darius."

He looked up, spotted me, and grinned. "Harry! What brings you to our shitty little town?"

I sat down and glanced around. Heidi sat beside me, but Olivia and James stayed standing.

"Shot?" Darius offered, pouring me one from the bottle of vodka. It was a tradition of his, he'd refuse to talk to me if I didn't take the shot. I took the shot glass and drained it. The taste woke me slightly, but a cup of coffee would have been better. Or an end to this madness.

"We need help, Darius. We need news, we need supplies."

"They attacked around 3am, I think. People fought back, but it wasn't easy. Completely without warning, we were unprepared." he took another shot, "Most of us didn't even have guns. While we managed to kill a few of them, their losses were nothing like ours. Then, a couple of hours later, all the TVs and radios in town turn on to show this old c*nt in a suit surrendering us. Don't know how or why, but that pretty much knocked out all the spirit in our struggle. We had our guns confiscated and were told to wait for further orders. I grabbed a bottle of vodka and came here. Shot?"

I took another shot. Probably not the best idea. "We need help, Darius." I repeated, "Can you give us supplies, help us, I dunno, beef up our car?"

"What's in it for me?" he demanded, already pouring himself another shot. Darius could handle his alcohol.

I looked around. There was no one watching. I slipped a Glock from my pocket and slid it across the table to him. He took it.

"Deal."


	8. Chapter 8

Darius had a workshop. It wasn't amazing, but it was well equipped. He usually had a staff of about six, but three had been killed. We drove the RX-8 there, it hadn't been stolen, and they got to work.

Welding things on, cutting things, replacing things. In some corner of my mind I was worried that they'd make it look awful, but then I realized that no one but me would care if my RX-8 was a bit beat up.

They worked for a few more hours. I was told they were tuning up the engine, fixing a couple of gears, reinforcing particular places, putting in tinted and bullet proof glass along with bullet proof wheels. There would also be turbo and NOS injections, but to James' dismay, they weren't mounting flamethrowers and rocket launchers.

While that was in progress, we returned to the bar, still all sticking together. Olivia and James had a shot each, but Heidi refused. After listening in to some conversations, we worked out that Breen would be in the town later that day, and there were plans for rebellion then. We were all sitting and talking when two Combine sauntered over.

"You! Citizen! Come with me!" barked one, pointing at Heidi, then "You! Citizen! Come with me!" it said again, now pointing at Olivia. They shot us a terrified glance, and when no one got up immediately, the closest Combine grabbed Olivia's arm and wrenched her from her seat.

"OI!" roared James, pulling out his gun and smacking the Combine across the face with it. I grabbed my shotgun from my back holster and blasted the other one in the face. The noise echoed through the bar, and everyone stopped. The music cut out. We concealed our weapons.

"What the fuck happened here?" demanded the barman, rushing over.

I shrugged, "Someone shot the masked c*nt."

Half a dozen Combine were marching toward us. We were dead. There was no way we could fight all of them off. There was only one thing to do.

Shrugging off my leather jacket, my shotgun came into clear view, "Alright, it was me. I shot him." Then to the others I muttered, "Get the fuck out of here."

They shrunk away, James and Olivia having to tug at Heidi who had tears in her eyes.

I threw the shotgun on the ground in front of me. It fell as though in slow motion and clattered to the ground. The other holster with my Desert Eagle I ripped off and threw down as well.

I turned and saw Heidi, and our eyes met.

"I love you." I whispered, before all went black.

**The End. Of part one, at least. Part one was the Seven Hour War. Part two, entitled Living Bad Dreams, will be up soon. **

**As I keep saying... remember to read and review!**


	9. Chapter 9  Sympathy For The Devil

**Part Two – Living Bad Dreams**

**Chapter Nine – Sympathy For The Devil**

When I came to, I was in a small room, upright, and barely able to move. It appeared that I was bound by some sort of metal casing, restricting my body but leaving my head relatively free. There were one or two more beside me, all empty, and in one corner was a complex looking control panel with a Combine standing at attention beside it. He was ignoring me completely. There were boxes piled up against the wall, this must have been an ad-hoc set up. Most importantly, though, was the man with white hair, a white beard and brown suit standing in front of me.

"Dr Breen." I spat, contempt in my voice. He looked at me thoughtfully.

"What's your name, son?"

I glared at him for a second, then, "You surrendered us. You fucking cunt, you surrendered the whole fucking planet!"

"It was the only option!" he cried, "We would have all died otherwise!"

"Then we should all be dead!" I yelled, "Live free or die!"

He calmed down, "What do you want, son?"

"I want my friends. I want my car. I want my guns, and I want to get the fuck out of here." I hissed.

Just as Breen opened his mouth to reply, a door opened and another man walked in. He was tall, thin, holding a briefcase and wearing a blue suit.

"Ah, hello there!" said Breen, smiling and walking over to him. They talked quietly for a few minutes, then Breen nodded to the guard. Pressing a button, my casket split open and I fell to the ground. I leapt to my feet as the new man turned to face me,

"Missster... Thomp-son..." he said, his voice a peculiar hiss, "It has been... decided. Hm. That you are to be... let free. Now, I understand this is... un-usual at a bessst."

"Why are you releasing me?" I demanded, skeptical, "You think it's just a nice thing to do?"

"Oh no. I am not allowed to... interfere... with the natural order of things."

"So why are you setting me free?"

He smiled thinly, "I can't help but feel we are going in circles here. Come, I will take you to your friends."

"My friends? What, you captured them?"

"Not me, personally."

He led me, accompanied by a guard and Breen, out of the room, and into a room with cells. I realized this must be the town police station. In the cell block, five of the tiny, dank cells were occupied. Two contained bruised and beaten men who looked up at us sadly, but the other three contained my friends. Heidi in one, curled up on the bench under my leather jacket, blue eyes darting around the room. Olivia in another, silently watching James. James in the third, pacing back and forth, furious.

I raced to Heidi's cell. Noticing me, she gave a small smile, gestured to the leather jacket and said surprisingly calmly, "It smells like you."

James and Olivia looked over, "Harry!" they yelled in unison. I nodded to them as Heidi came over to the bars and kissed me through them.

"We're being let out." I told them,

"Why?" said James, suspicious,

"I don't know, but frankly, I don't care. I just want to get out of here."

The guard opened the cell doors and they rushed out, Heidi and I coming together in a tight embrace, after which Olivia hugged me and James slapped me on the back.

"What happened?" I asked,

"After they knocked you out, we were brought here." answered Heidi, "They carried you away and locked James in one of the cells. Then... Olivia and I... they held us down and..."

"Oh god..."

Olivia took over, "Then that Breen guy, came into the room. Ordered them not to touch us. We were put in our cells, and have been here ever since."

I wrapped Heidi up into another tight hug, "I'm so glad you're OK..." I whispered in her ear, then to the others I said, "So... Breen protected you?"

"Yeah. I didn't know what to think, maybe he's OK afterall."

I looked around at Breen, who was still in the room.

"You saved my friends." I said. He nodded. I hugged him, "Perhaps you're a good cunt after all." I said.

"So what happens now?" asked James,

"Your car and weapons will be returned to you." Breen replied stiffly, "You shall leave, go where you were originally headed, and not attempt rebellion. From the point of leaving the town, if seen again you will be treated like a regular citizen."

"Your car and weapons will be returned to you." repeated the other man, "You shall leave."

Why were they letting us leave? They were all too happy to beat and kill innocent civilians, we'd done plenty of damage already. I decided it was just a question for the ages.

Five minutes later we were loaded into the RX-8, in perfect condition and with all it's supplies untouched.

"Couldn't they have, I dunno, put a bomb in here?" asked Heidi,

"Why would they? If they wanted to kill us, they would have just killed us. There are cheaper, faster and more painful ways of killing people than blowing up a car." James told her. He was driving now, I was far too tired. Olivia was in the front with him, Heidi and I were in back. I opened another pack of cigarettes, smoked one, then attempted to sleep using me leather jacket as a blanket and Heidi's lap as a pillow.


	10. Chapter 10 From Here To Eternity

I woke about three hours later to find the others still discussing why we'd been let out. They were no closer to figuring it out than they had been three hours ago, except for determining the man in the blue suit had something to do with it. I woke up to hear Olivia saying, "Kinda like the G-men in Ireland back in the thirties."

I yawned and sat up.

"I miss anything?" I asked them, grabbing a bar of chocolate from the box of food. Heidi and I shared it.

"Nah nothing really. Had a minor scrap with a couple of antlions, surprised that didn't wake you, but we've not seen any Combine." I was told.

"So... this G-man guy..."

We were making decent progress; while we wouldn't reach the house today, we'd easily be able to make it by tomorrow. Though, if everything had gone to plan, we'd already be there.

The fuel tank was running pretty low, and we were tired and hungry, so we decided to stop in a small village for a drink. We were less worried about the Combine, now that a truce had been declared.

Everyone has a vice. That pointless thing that they just have to do, that habit, that possession, that action. I have two main ones.

One, of course, is smoking. There's not much that I love more than sitting outside with my girlfriend, watching the sunset and having a cigarette.

The other is traveling in style.

Now, granted, I've never been the epitome of cool. I've never owned all the best or coolest stuff. However, I've always done my best to look awesome. Driving the RX-8 was a necessity, even in this global disaster. My outfit was important, it was for the look. All these things, no matter the setting, no matter how trivial, were crucial to me.

Thus when an old man offered us two red speed bikes in the cafe of a small town, I couldn't refuse.

The cafe was back in business, with much of the town (about fifteen people) congregated in there. We went in to grab a snack, a drink and to hear any news. The Combine hadn't hit this town at all, I guess it was just too small, but that didn't stop the residents from being terrified. The upside of this was that we were able to carry our weapons with us. James and I with shotguns, Heidi with an Uzi and Olivia with an M4. If I hadn't been so exhausted (still) I might have found it comical, my girlfriend carrying an Uzi, my best friend with a shotgun casually on his back, and his girlfriend getting the hang of handling an assault rifle.

Needless to say, no one messed with us. We got a table, ordered some drinks, and talked.

"I would kill for a toke right now..." muttered James. I laughed hollowly,

"You don't need to, you've got a fuck ton in the car."

"Good point. You keen for a session?"

"I've just driven halfway across the countryside, killed countless aliens, almost died several times; of course I'm keen for a sesh."

"Shall we go?"

"Nah. I wanna finish my drink. And I won't have much; I gotta drive. And there's always the threat of Combine. And aliens. And other ungodly creatures."

We continued with our drinks. A few minutes later, I heard a voice.

"Excuse me, young men."

I turned around, hand resting on my shotgun. It was an old man, shabbily dressed and seemingly unarmed.

"What do you want, old man?" demanded James. The man smiled.

"The name's Steve." he said. I groaned, it was so cliché. "I'm wondering if perhaps you're interested in a bit of a business deal."

I looked at James. He looked at me. Heidi and Olivia looked at us.

"Have a seat." I said.

Steve led us to his garage. The place was a mess, tools and car parts made it almost impossible to move around. It was dark and smelled awful. In the middle, however, were two bright red, immaculate speed bikes. I had to have them.

"Do they work?"

"Of course they work." snapped the man. He started them both and revved them. The sound was orgasmic.

"How much?" James asked. He looked as psyched as I felt.

"A shotgun. Enough rounds to take down a small army." the man said stonily, "And an ounce of your finest Mary Jane."

"Hm. An ounce? That's a lot." I lied,

"Yeah, we haven't got very much." agreed James. Both of us shot a look at our respective girlfriends. They knew what we were doing.

"Do we do it?" I asked James,

"I think we do. Blazing is fun, but we need these bikes."

"Steve, you've got a deal." I told the man, "Shotgun driving one first."

"Shotgun the other one." interjected Olivia, grinning at James.

"What about helmets, and leathers and stuff?" asked Heidi, the only sensible one.

"I'll throw in all that stuff for an extra half O."

"Done." she said.

Half an hour later, having decided not to smoke any weed yet, we set off, James driving the RX-8 with Heidi, Olivia and I on our new motorbikes.

There was a long, straight stretch of road ahead of us. James pulled into the middle of the road with Olivia and I on either side. I smiled at Heidi through the window. She was smoking. Damn she's beautiful.

We gunned it.

My only experience of a motorcycle is the moped I used to own. It had a top speed of about 60 km, 70 in a huge tail wind. This motorbike got to 100 in probably about five seconds. It was intense. James was struggling to keep up as we neared 200 km.

There were no Combine. There was no mass genocide. No Dr Breen. Not even Heidi. Nothing existed apart from my bike, my road and myself. There'd never been anything else, I'd always done this. I would always do this.

I don't know how long we drove like that. Eventually I caught hold of myself and we slowed down to about 160, but that was still extreme.

Night fell, and despite being exhausted, we kept driving. Heidi had taken over Olivia's bike, and James was still driving the RX-8. It got to about 9:30, and the sky was dark.

I'm not sure what caused me to lose control. James says it was a pothole, Olivia and Heidi just saw me stumble and fishtail, before coming off and flying several meters, then slide several more. I don't remember much, except for being airborne, in a lot of pain, then darkness.

**It's a bit dry, and it's been a while since I last uploaded. I've been busy. The next chapter will be better, and sooner.**


	11. Chapter 11 After The Thrill Is Gone

"Oh my god, Harry!" Olivia screamed. I saw Heidi careening to a halt as I jammed on the brakes, stalled the engine and slid to a stop.

Harry wasn't moving. He was a good ten meters from his bike, face up, limbs splayed everywhere.

Heidi leapt off her bike and sprinted over to him. Olivia and I leapt out of the car.

"Call an ambulance! Call a fucking ambulance!" Heidi was screaming. My phone was in my hand, the number ready.

"No! We can't!" I suddenly said, "The Combine will find us!"

"I don't give a shit! Call the fucking ambulance!"

We were freaking out. Heidi, naturally fair skinned, was white as a ghost, Olivia was green, we were all yelling while Harry lay there, not moving, bleeding.

"Olivia, get the first aid kit!" I ordered. Heidi went to grab my phone, I snatched it away,

"First aid won't help, he needs a fucking doctor!" she yelled,

She just didn't get it. If the Combine picked up an emergency broadcast from a cell phone out here, which they would, they'd come check it out, and that Breen guy had said that we'd be treated as "regular citizens" if we crossed paths again.

I snapped. "Look, you wanna fucking die? Harry's fucking injured, you call that ambulance, we all die. I'm not gonna be fucking responsible for you if you bring the Combine here. They show up, they leave him here to die, they shoot me and they take you and Olivia prisoner. You want that?"

She didn't say anything, but I saw tears in her eyes.

"Uh..."

"Harry!"

He tried to get up, but could barely move.

"Da... Dad..." he was muttering, "Dad..."

Dad! Harry's father was a doctor. But there wasn't a chance of him getting out here, I wasn't even sure where "here" was.

"Radio..." he whispered, "Glove... box..."

I rushed to the car, opened the glove compartment and found a compact little HAM radio. I was never a technical genius, hell, I grew weed for a living. Returning to Harry, I saw Heidi still kneeling beside him, cell phone in her hand. It was dialing.

"No!" I shouted, sprinting back and knocking the phone out of her hand. Heidi screamed and fell backwards. She looked terrified. The phone was shattered. No time to worry about that now.

"Harry... Harry, man, how do I get this on?"

He was moving. With his clearly broken left arm, he managed to claw his way onto his side. Through the helmet I saw his face, only one eye open, black and red. Using his right he slowly and jerkily reached into his jacket. What the fuck was he doing? He was delirious.

He was bringing something out. It must have been something for the radio, I thought. Yeah, it was shiny. I looked again. A Glock was staring me in the face, held by his shaking right hand.

"Touch... my girlfriend again..." he muttered, "and you fucking die."

**Bit of a short chapter today, but it seemed like a good place to end. Already working on the next chapter, I'll have it up soon :)**


	12. Chapter 12 Otherside

I don't remember much of the incident. Lying on the ground, yelling, screaming, a blue man, and some strange sounds, like a ring tone, and a slap. Somehow they had (as they later told me) called my father, fixed me up as best they could on his instructions, and set me up in the car. It worked, and I woke, in the car, lain uncomfortably across the backseat.

We were driving, Heidi at the wheel, anxious, driving 110 in fourth. Olivia was beside her. They were silent. Outside I saw James cruising along ahead on the motorbike. One motorbike. The other must have been destroyed in the crash, I knew that instantly. The atmosphere was tense. I tried to speak.

"Whhheeere arre wwe?"

"Harry! Shit, he's awake." Heidi honked the car horn. They slowed to a halt. The car stalled.

Olivia opened the window and James ducked his head into the car.

"Harry, how are you?" he asked,

"Pretty good, yourself?" I said lightly, then, "Oh yeah, I'm also a fucking crippled, but that's not important."

"OK, stupid question. We're nearly there, man. At the house. At least, I think we are. I wasn't so sure of your Dad's directions, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that we're in the wrong place, so..."

"Yeah. You're going the right way. How long was I out?"

"About three hours." Heidi told me, "I was scared you weren't gonna wake up..."

Something was wrong, but I didn't know what. They were acting different.

I tried to sit up, but my body was too bashed up to allow any significant movement.

"Broken tibia, four broken toes, mild concussion, broken arm, dislocated shoulder and broken collar bone. And that's just what we know about, there could be internal bleeding, and god knows what else. We did our best." James said grimly. My left hand was OK, I groped for my gun. It was gone. I hadn't told these guys about my revolver.

"Did you get everything from the crash?" I asked, not wanting to give away that I had the revolver.

"The bike was mangled to hell, we had to leave it behind. Your shotgun was a bit dented, but it's OK, and your revolver is fine." James took the revolver from his pocket and handed it to me, "You didn't tell me you had one of them. It's nice."

I didn't reply, instead checking that it was loaded.

There was something up. Heidi was acting strange, she hadn't acknowledged James' presence this whole time. Olivia kept shooting looks between the two of them, and James seemed almost sheepish. I lit a bowl of weed, took a puff, then looked between them.

"What's going on?"

There was an awkward silence.

"Guys, what's going on?" I repeated.

Another awkward silence.

"We... ran into some... disagreements." James said, even more sheepishly.

"He fucking hit me!" burst Heidi,

"She wanted to call an ambulance. Harry, you know that the call would be traced, then we'd be fucked!"

"Doesn't give you the right to hit me!"

"I didn't hit you! I went to grab your phone!"

"Oi!" I yelled, as loudly as I could manage. They fell silent, "James, you may be my best friend, but if you ever, EVER touch Heidi again, I will kill you." I said coldly. I meant it. "You get me? You're lucky I don't fucking leave you on the side of the road right here."

"I get you." he replied, if not resentfully.

"Good. Now get back on the bike, I wanna get home."

It was too much to take in. Heidi was hurt, one of our bikes had been destroyed within hours, my body was shot to hell and we still weren't at the house.

There was a town relatively close to the house, about a fifteen minute drive, and we'd have to pass through it to get there. Naturally, we were all pretty worried. The town had a population of about ten thousand, tiny on national standards, but if the Combine had hit smaller towns we were sure they'd have control of this one.

We were wrong.

It looked like a shelled city from the war. I think this unnerved me more than anything else, seeing all these burning buildings, struck by some sort of artillery shells. The smoke made it hard to see, even though we had the fog lights on. Corpses and bits of corpses littered the streets. Every so often a building, its structure destroyed by the fires, would collapse and more corpses would tumble out. I saw no one alive. There was nothing to do but smoke more weed.

"Look! Someone's alive!" exclaimed Olivia, pointing into the smoke.

Sure enough, looking closely I saw a person stumbling around, looking almost as crippled as me. Heidi, who'd quickly worked out how to drive the RX-8, slowly pulled up alongside the person.

He must have heard us, because he turned and stumped toward James.

"Zombies!" I hissed, "Olivia, open the window."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it!"

The back windows in an RX-8 can't be fully opened, so I took out my revolver, pointed it out Olivia's window and pulled the trigger. The zombie dropped like a sack of potatoes. I looked around to see if there were any more. There were.

Dozens of them began pouring out of building and rubble, some converging around the car, some stumbling around aimlessly, and some fighting amongst themselves. It was a hideous sight.

"Floor it, Heidi." I said as levelly as I could. She put the car into first, revved the engine too high, then let the clutch out too fast. The car bunny hopped a few times, then stalled.

"Shit, I'm sorry!"

"It's OK," I said, doing everything I could to keep control of my voice, "Try it again. Into neutral. There you go. Start the car. Push the clutch in. Into first. Good, ease on the accelerator, close Olivia's window, good, bit more acceleration. OK, slowly let out the clutch. Slowly! Good. OK, you're moving, bit more acceleration, clutch out some more."

I'd only recently learned to drive manual myself, but at least I'd learned on the back streets of my neighborhood, not in a shelled, zombie infested town. Heidi was a strong girl, she didn't lose her head no matter how close the zombies were getting.

She let the clutch out too fast again, the car bunny hopped but she pushed the clutch back in before it stalled. This wasn't good. The zombies were almost at the car.

"What do I do now?" she demanded, beginning to sound agitated. I heard gunfire. James was picking off the zombies from several feet away. A few turned and shambled towards him. He may have hit my girlfriend, but that guy was brave.

"Get the fuck out of here!" I yelled out the window, then to Heidi, "Little bit of acceleration... ease off the clutch... good... more acceleration... more... clutch out more... and... drop the clutch!" The car shot forward, "More acceleration! Clutch in, into second!"

We were away. "Clutch in. No, foot off the accelerator. Move the gear stick into neutral, across about halfway, now up. Clutch out. Accelerate!"

When you've been driving manual for a while this sort of thing becomes second nature, but when you first start... let's just say that the first time I drove manual I stalled the car six times. And that's before I even got into second.

"What now?" Heidi asked, hands gripping the wheel tightly.

"Just cruise along like this. Don't go too fast, stay around sixty. Olivia, where's James?"

"I saw him drive down that way."

"He'll catch up. Heidi, keep driving down this way. I'll give you directions to the house as you need them."

Our journey was almost over. It had taken far longer than it should have, but we were all still alive. That was something, at least.

"I need a fucking cigarette." I said.


	13. Chapter 13 Coming Home

My father's summer house was strategically pretty sound. Perhaps not as much as Louis's complex, it wasn't exactly a castle, but we'd probably be safe here. For the moment, at least. Olivia, however, thought otherwise.

"This is where we're living? It's a fucking shack! We traveled this far for... that?"

"It doesn't look like much, I'll admit, but that's why it's perfect." I told her.

The "house" wasn't much of a house. More of a garage with a room built on top, and an external staircase leading to the room. It had been built about three years ago, my father had been saving to have the proper house built ever since.

The section that he owned was a fifty acre subdivision of forest. There were about ten of these sections, with a single dirt road leading to them. Each section had a small area cleared, the "pad", where houses could be built. Six of the sections had been sold, one had a house, one had a similar construction to my father's, the others had nothing.

Our pad was at the top of a relatively steep incline. The house had a balcony which overlooked the driveway, so we'd be able to see anyone coming from the road. The forest stretched for miles in every other direction; the odds of someone finding their way through it were slim at best. The garage was home to a boat, SUV and almost every tool you could ever need. We had 40,000 liters of water stored, 25,000 in a concrete tank and 15,000 in a plastic tank. About four months worth of food. Six extra rifles and two shotguns. Behind the garage was a forge, complete with furnace, anvil, enough coal to sink a ship and enough iron and steel to build the aforementioned ship. Finally, four large gas tanks for hot water heating, and could be hooked up for electricity in a pinch.

It could be completely disconnected from the mains. We had solar panels, a small windmill and waterwheel and a petrol generator for emergencies.

While this could all be ruined by a single scorpion rocket (or whatever the Combine used instead), few people knew of the existence of this area, and the only road leading to it was almost impossible to find unless you knew exactly where it was. And in the event that we were forced out, there was a small shack built in the middle of the forest, also equipped with supplies and weapons.

"So that's why we're here. Any questions?" I told Olivia.

Using my shotgun as a crutch, I managed to maneuver my way out of the car. With a little help from Heidi, I got up the stairs and unlocked the door.

"I must admit... it is comfortable." Olivia admitted as I collapsed onto the couch. The house itself was one room with a separate bathroom, and a kitchen area against one wall. Two attics, one on each side of the room, and a balcony facing out to the driveway. We'd have plenty of warning if anyone approached.

"Just try to keep it tidy, and smoke outside." I said. Some old, irrelevant routines penetrating my new, stressed out mind. My old man didn't smoke, and this was his house so out of respect I wouldn't smoke inside. Even after escaping death countless times, that routine remained.

"So, what next?" asked Heidi. Everyone looked expectantly at me. I sighed.

"Still heaps to do. Turning the power on, turning the water on, unpacking the car, cooking up some food, I guess those are the essentials for now. Later, tomorrow I guess, we'll have to work on setting ourselves up for... for however long we need."

"Well, I don't wanna sound sexist here... but I'm a shit cook, and Harry here needs to explain to me how to do all that shit, so if one or both of you girls could maybe work on some food?"

He didn't sound sexist, but James' comment did piss me off. It sounded like I was a cripple, and unable to do anything. Though, granted, I was pretty much out of the game until I recovered. I let it slide.

"Sure, I can do that." volunteered Olivia. Heidi still hadn't acknowledged James. "Where is everything?"

"Pretty simple kitchen," I explained, "Glasses, plates, et cetera in that cupboard, along with the toaster and so one. Pretty much everything that doesn't fit in the drawers. There's some food in those drawers, but probably nothing quality. No one comes here for weeks at a time, so we can't store perishables. There's more food downstairs, along with what we've got in the car."

"We'd better ration, don't you think?" interjected James,

"Eugh..." I hadn't thought that far ahead, "Yeah... but tomorrow. I need a decent meal tonight, to be completely honest."

Too much to think about. We were all exhausted, but would need to do these chores today. Olivia found a few packets of potato chips in the kitchen drawers, so we sat munching them and discussing what happened next.

I desperately wanted a cup of coffee, but to boil the jug we'd need power and water, meaning that those would have to be dealt with first.

While Olivia began to take stock of what we had, James and I went back downstairs, Heidi helping me walk. I got the feeling she didn't want to be away from me.

We ambled around to the back of the garage to a large power box. While we generally got power from the grid, we could comfortably survive on our own.

Inside the power box I switched off all the mains leads, making a note to remove the components completely at a later date. The batteries from our electricity sources were all fully charged, so I switched them on. These would last for up to a week comfortably, even if they weren't being replenished. Clean, 100% free power. I was a bit worried about using power at all, in case the Combine used some sort of thermal imaging scan to find population centers or rebels, but there was really nothing to do about it. Perhaps I was just being paranoid.

"OK, we're powered up." I told the others, "Now just the water tank."

The water pump was easier to start up, so I was able to direct James. The tank was in the ground, with just the top of it visible. It was across a small stream over which my father had jerry-rigged a small bridge. I stayed on the house side while James went across.

"Yeah, just watch the sides, we don't want to cover the tank in dirt." The contractors who had installed the tank had dug the whole too deep, so even the top sat about two feet below the ground. Council regulations stated that it could not be completely submerged under ground, so from a distance it looked like just a big, shallow hole in the ground. Not all that important, but it had pissed my father off at the time.

"OK, good. Now you see that red lever coming off that pipe from the water pump? Yeah, twist that around. Yup. Now twist the blue one the other way. OK, sweet. Come on back."

The rest of the day was spent unpacking the car and setting up the house as best we could. Hopefully my father would join us at some point, but I didn't know when. I'd also have to make contact with Louis to update him on what had happened and find out any news, but that could wait.

James wanted to put the RX-8 in the garage, but due to the setup inside it would've taken far too long. Since we didn't want to advertise that we were there I had him park it around the back of the house.

Finally, as ten o'clock rolled by we decided to get some sleep. Someone half-heartedly suggested a watch, but we were all too exhausted to organize anything. James and Olivia slept on the mattresses that we had, and Heidi and I had the fold-out couch. I fell asleep with Heidi in my arms.

**The house mentioned in this chapter is based on my father's real summer house. The details aren't the same, he doesn't have solar or anything, but it would be a fantastic place if something like this were to happen. I've always planned to head there if there is a disaster.**

**Also, I live in Christchurch, New Zealand – where that big earthquake hit. It's given me plenty of ideas for my writing, particularly around people and how they react to such things. Stay tuned :)**


	14. Chapter 14 Face To Face

**Just letting you readers know, I currently have no plans to finish Our Escape, at least not soon. Part Two may end in a while, not going to say, but I plan to keep writing the story for quite some time. As long as people are still reading, I'll keep writing.**

**On another note, I'm considering rewriting it into it's own novel, as opposed to a fan fiction. A lot of things will have to be changed, but I'd like to keep much of what I've already built; the characters, situations, settings, that sort of thing. Not sure yet if I will, but it's an idea. I'd love to get some of my work published in the future, but I'm not convinced that the stuff I've written so far would be good enough, especially as some of my best works are fan fictions. **

**Finally, if you're interested in some of my other works, you can find them on Writers Cafe (Google it), under the alias The Night Fox (just do a search under Writers)**

"Hey. Buddy, you awake?" the voice was like ear sandpaper. Every part of me ached. What had happened? I had no memory of how I'd gotten here, I'd been on the street when those people appeared...

I managed to drag my eyelids open. I was in a darkened room filled with mold and mildew. Not a nice setting. Moving my head, all I could see was that I was lying on a dirty mattress with a bearded, battle-hardened looking man crouched beside me.

"Where the fuck am I?" I croaked. The last thing I remembered was the zombies. At least, they seemed like zombies. I'd been in a street, there were too many. Then gunfire, then this.

"You're safe, for now." The man said, straightening up and moving to the other side of the room, "Coffee? Tea?" he asked, gesturing to a kettle over a small gas stove.

"Anything."

"Coffee it is."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Fucking zombies came along. I managed to hole up in here when I saw the first ones yesterday. Those shells that came down, they're filled with some sort of animal or something, you saw those things on the zombie's heads? The two are somehow related.

"Anyway, I managed to hide out in here for a few hours. Then I heard a couple of engines, thought it might be someone who could help us out. Ran down to the street, saw some cunt on a motorbike and a sports car. They cut down a couple of zombies, then fucked off. Now down on the street, I got all these zombies coming after me. Wasted a couple of clips before realizing that I wouldn't be able to take them down, and just as I was about to drop nuts and run back to here, I saw you being attacked by a few. They knocked you down, and apparently out, but you were still breathing so I managed to fight them off and bring you back."

"You... you saved me?"

"Looks like it. I'm Rusty."

"Paul."

"How old are you, Paul?"

"Thirty two. I'm a mechanic."

"Well, let me get to the question then, what do you do for a living?" I didn't get it. "It's a joke, mate." Rusty said.

"So what happens now?" I asked, changing the subject. I was never one for jokes.

"Now? Now we drink coffee and try to figure out how the fuck we're going to get out of here."

And that's exactly what we did. The zombies had largely dissipated from the streets, and while a few remained Rusty claimed they were just a fraction of those around. He explained that we'd have to get out of the city, there was no taking it back. At least, not yet. He emphasized that part.

Rusty had explored the building while I'd been out and had found an ancient pickup truck. There were no keys, but I solved that problem pretty quickly. Like I said, I'm a mechanic.

I let Rusty drive; I was in no state to get behind a wheel. Big mistake.

He pushed open the warehouse/garage/whatever doors, ran back to the pickup, jumped in and floored it.

Several minutes and several splattered zombies later, we were out of the town. Unfortunately, several minutes after that, we were out of fuel.

Rusty knew the area; without any input from me he decided we'd continue on foot. There was a lifestyle block not too far from here, he told me, surely we could hole up there.

It took two hours to walk there, another fifteen minutes to reach the particular part Rusty had in mind. A small house, or cottage, or something. It was at the top of a steep driveway, not something I wanted to walk up after already having walked for two hours on virtually no energy. Nonetheless, the journey was coming to an end, so I managed to stumble my way up.

Approaching the top, a sliding door opened and a young man appeared on the balcony, rifle in hand, pointed at us.

"Oi! Don't fucking move!" he shouted.

I threw my hands up, "Hey, we're on your side!" I yelled,

"Like hell! Don't come any closer or I'll cut you down!" he replied. Keeping the gun on us, he called something I couldn't hear inside. Another person, a girl, came out onto the balcony, armed with some kind of firearm, I couldn't see it very clearly.

"What do you want?" the guy called. Rusty spoke up,

"Please mate, we just need a place to stay."

"Uh-uh. Not here, man. Keep on trucking."

"Please! There's nowhere else to go!"

"We ain't got any room, nor supplies to spare."

"But-" Rusty began, the kid gestured for him to be quiet. He was listening to someone else inside the house. I didn't know how many people were in there, but we were hopelessly outgunned. This was just stupid. I looked around the property, anything that could help us. Around back, a car. Red, familiar. Where had I seen it before? It was nice, some sort of sports car.

"Rusty? Let's just go. These people don't want to share." I muttered,

"No. I need this."

"Stay there!" the guy called, "Just a sec."

Another guy came onto the balcony, walking strangely. He had a shotgun of some sort, but was using it like a walking stick. Like the other, he was young, but walked with the gait of an old man. Hobbled, that was the word. He leaned against the railing and lifted the shotgun, not as threateningly as the other two.

"You heard my brother." he said, "We have nothing to spare. Get the fuck off my property."

"Kid, just hear me out!"

"Now!" he yelled, aimed the shotgun at Rusty.

"Alright, alright! We're going!"

We turned and slowly began walking back down the driveway. It was an awful moment.

Rusty stopped and turned, "Just one more thing-" he began.

I heard a blast from a shotgun. I dropped to the ground, terrified.

Rusty was still standing, unscathed. The shot wasn't directed at us. It was a warning shot.

We got down the road alive, but we were screwed; no supplies, no car, nowhere to stay and only one gun.

"Fuck it." Rusty said, "This ain't over."


	15. Chapter 15 The Hardest Button To Button

We had to turn them away. There was no other option. I wasn't happy about it, but they had to go. We're not a charity.

The day after they came. We'd not done much while being here, apart from setting up, but today I decided we'd get to work. Those of use who weren't crippled, at least. I hated it; I was useless.

Something surprised me that morning.

I woke up earlier than usual, around eight-ish. The morning's here were beautiful, not just things like the sun rising, everything. The fresh air, the smell of pine, it catered for all the senses.

Heidi was still fast asleep. I looked over at James and Olivia's bed; James was gone. Panic rose in my heart, but I saw him out on the balcony, smoking. My shotgun and makeshift walking stick was beside the mattress. I could no longer leap out of bed; it now took a good ten, fifteen seconds. Limped over to the door, grabbed an open pack of smokes from the table.

"Sup." I said, joining James outside. He wasn't smoking cigarettes, I realized. One of his many cones was in his hand, packed and smoldering.

"Sup." he responded quietly. I wasn't sure if he was just really stoned, or was acting weirdly. "You want a hit?"

"Eh." I took the cone and lighter, had a toke. "So what's up?"

He seemed awkward. "I feel terrible, man."

"Yeah? What's up? Mind if I roll a quick doob?"

"Go ahead." he said, "Heidi, man. I can't believe I hurt her. I can't believe I... fuck... I gotta make things right."

I found a pack of papers in my pocket. We were all sleeping in our clothes. I began rolling up a joint.

"Yeah. You do."

There wasn't much else to say, so we stood outside, admired the scenery and smoked our weed. Things were so peaceful, it was hard to believe the entire world had been enslaved, or defeated, or something, by an alien race. Another alien race. But nothing like that matters when you've got a joint in one hand and a shotgun in another.

It wasn't long before the girls awoke. You always seemed to wake up early over here, no matter the circumstances. They joined us briefly on the balcony before we all returned inside for breakfast.

When we'd all eaten and were contemplating another smoke before getting to work, James called our attention.

"I want to talk to you guys. Well, I want to talk to Heidi especially, but I think it's important you guys are here too.

"Heidi, I'd like to apologize for my actions the other day. In the heat of the moment, in all the panic, I overreacted. I laid a hand on you, I hit you, it doesn't matter what you call it, I was out of order. I did not for a second want or mean to hurt you, and I want you to know that I would never do anything to harm you in any way. You're like a sister to me, Heidi. You're my best friend's girlfriend, you're my girlfriend's friend, you're my friend. I would never hurt you, I would only protect you.

"I don't know what else to say, but that I hope you accept this, because it really is sincere."

I knew it was coming, but I was stunned. I'd known James for years, and he'd never been even remotely this sombre. Even Olivia was flabbergasted.

Heidi didn't say a thing. She had tears in her eyes, and it took a lot to make Heidi cry. She'd gotten through the events of the past few days without batting an eyelid, it just showed how much James' speech meant.

Speech over, James didn't know what to say. There was an awkward silence, until Heidi got up and hugged him. When she was done, Olivia did the same; a little more intimately, though.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna hug you." I said, breaking the tension. The others laughed.

"I need a fucking cone." James said, worn out from this sentimental moment.

We all crowded back out onto the balcony, James hitting the cone, me with a joint that I shared with Heidi, and Olivia a cigarette. An atmosphere that was awkward, tense less than an hour before had evaporated, we were back to talking and joking as we'd always been. Things felt good. I knew it wouldn't last, that our troubles went far deeper than social conflicts, but that just didn't matter.

For maybe two hours we stayed out there, relaxing, smoking. James found a case of beers in the garage, so we brought them out. I've never been into drinking, but a few beers with friends, in a place that I'd always considered paradise; it was perfect.

Then came the moan.

"What the fuck is that?" James demanded, looking around.

"Look!" exclaimed Heidi, gesturing to the driveway. There, stumbling up the slope, six zombies.

"Guys, weapons." James instructed calmly, picking up his shotgun.

He stood, took careful aim at the closest one, and fired. The zombie flinched, but didn't fall. It kept coming.

"Fuck. Too much spread, can't get a shot." he muttered, more to himself than us, "Olivia, go grab me a rifle."

She rushed inside, but to little avail, "The ammo is downstairs." Heidi said.

"Fuck this." I said, pushing myself to my feet. Hobbled inside with my shotgun, out the door, down the stairs. Might as well make it a fair fight.

"Harry, what are you doing?" yelled Heidi at the top of the stairs.

The zombie James had fired on came around the corner of the house, about five meters away. I heard another blast from James' shotgun, followed by, "Aim for the head!"

Three meters. Hefted up the shotgun, awkward because of my injuries. Head it is.

I somewhat regretted aiming for the head. The shot hit directly, severing the neck. Headcrab and head went flying while the body dropped like a sack of potatoes. Two more came round the corner as Heidi rushed down the stairs to stand by me, wielding only a Glock.

James fired another round. "Yes!" he yelled. Three down, three to go.

"I got the one on the left." Heidi said, taking aim. I love that girl.

Six rounds from the Glock in the time it took me to fire once.

One more came around the corner.

"This one's mine."

Heidi moved back onto the stairs and was joined by James and Olivia. I let the zombie get closer and closer. Two meters. One meter.

Boom.

Fuck the head, a round of buckshot, pointblank in the chest will fuck anything up.

The corpse hit the ground, I lowered my shotgun.

The headcrab detached itself from it's host and leapt at my head.


	16. Chapter 16 Poison Was The Cure

I've taken a lot of drugs in my life. I'm not some sort of junkie, never have been, but as a teenager, after getting into pot, I started experimenting with different drugs. Not because I was just some stoner, taking anything just for a fix or a buzz, I'd always been interested in narcotics. Hell, I had a reputation at school as a stoner long before I even touched the herb.

Less than a year after toking for the first time, I'd already taken acid, magic mushrooms, mescaline, a little bit of PCP, rush, and ecstasy. But none of those even came close to DMT.

DMT. Dimethyltryptamine. The most powerful psychedelic known to man. Have a bad trip, and it can fuck you up for life.

I tried it four times. The third time I had a bad trip, but I eventually got over it.

I've often been asked what a DMT trip was like. It's impossible to adequately describe with our limited vocabulary, but what I can say is that it takes you as close to death as possible. It strips away the walls of our universe, shows you what you actually are. When you're on it, you understand. Not just how things work, why things happen, no, it's far more complex than that. DMT is the universe through a bong. When I had a bad trip, it was still all of these things, but it was like I wasn't ready. The sheer volume of information I was taking in absolutely raped my brain, left me exhausted and weak, scared the shit out of me.

When the headcrab jumped me that day, it covered my head, blocked my sight, and I felt four large claws dig into my torso. For a few seconds all I felt was pain, but then the venom kicked in.

The only thing I can compare it to is my bad trip on DMT. The venom, the neurotoxin, whatever it was, hit my brain and suddenly I was gone. I thought "is this it?" and then nothing else.

Time was irrelevant. Space was irrelevant. I was everything, and I was nothing. Both huge and small at the same time. I was the universe, and I was an electron. Everyone and no one. I saw cities rising and falling. I saw beings, I saw the people behind the scenes, the puppeteers, the ones pulling the strings. I saw everything that had happened, everything that was yet to happen. Saw things in perspective. Saw how minuscule and unimportant Earth was in the scheme of things, and at the same time how it was crucial. Even how I was crucial for the plan to work, whatever the plan was.

No one should be expected to handle this trip.

Primum non nocere.

First, do no harm.

How do you explain this to a man who's only son is a zombie?

How do you explain that the only remedy is a bullet?

How do you justify it to yourself?

Do your duty.

When do you stay, when do you leave?

Do you risk your own life to save others?

Do you give your own life to save others?

Just out of med school, I served in the Vietnam war as a field medic. I saved a lot of people, hell, I even got a few medals. You can't save everyone, though. I saw a lot of good men die, some by my own hand.

After Vietnam I settled down to general practice, running a family clinic in the city. It was nice; the pay was good, the hours were acceptable, and I didn't have to pull shrapnel and dirt out of wounds while being shot at.

Then I got a call from my son, one Sunday night. They were coming, he told me. I told him to get out, that I'd have to stay, for a while at least.

I saw a lot of awful stuff in Vietnam. Buildings burned, forests decimated, innocent people slaughtered.

It's one thing to see a building burned to the ground. It's another thing to see your own clinic burn in front of your eyes. It's one thing to stitch up gunshot wounds on the battlefield, another thing to stitch up gunshot wounds in front of your neighbor's house.

In Vietnam there was always someone giving orders. Telling me when to stay, telling me when to retreat. Telling me that those men were already dead. That wasn't the Seven Hour War. There were no generals, no orders from HQ, just guerrilla warfare and pathetic attempts at mobilizing the army.

It was an epic failure. What happens when people without guns fight against people with guns? They get slaughtered. That's all the Seven Hour War was.

The days after the war were probably worse than the actual war. Thousands were rounded up, taken away, tortured, killed, experimented on, whatever it was the Combine did. Houses were raided, residents "relocated", the Combine essentially started from scratch, turning cities into purely industrial areas. They worked fast. The built buildings, they built walls. Divided and subdivided sections of the town, blocked off roads.

My house, bulldozed. Cars, confiscated. Money meant nothing anymore, every bank was destroyed. All currency null and void.

Most people accepted this. They had to, it was that or be killed. I had prepared, though, had known a day like this would come. I had about twenty thousand dollars worth of gold, hidden underground, and I used that to barter a working car off a contact. During the fighting I'd managed to secure a shotgun, and already had a handgun in my armageddon bag. This was hidden with the gold, and all I needed to survive in the wild.

Leaving the city wasn't easy. The walls that once existed to protect us from aliens outside now served to keep us trapped with the aliens inside. While large sections had collapsed, they were quickly barricaded by the Combine and cordoned off. I managed to sneak out through an old sewer system that another contact of mine had discovered. You meet a lot of interesting people as a general practitioner.

Completely alone, abandoning everything and everyone, I set off, heading for my safe haven, hoping like hell my son had made it.


	17. Chapter 17 Heaven Can Wait

Heidi screamed, her boyfriend turning to face the danger a split second too late. The headcrab leapt at him, enveloped his head, dug in it's claws. It was common knowledge out in the countryside that if a headcrab got its claws into a man's neck, there was no coming back. Luckily, Heidi was from the city.

Acting purely on impulse, she ran toward the abomination consuming her boyfriends head, and fueled by adrenaline and THC, wrenched the alien from it's holds and threw it on the gravel. Harry dropped like a stone as she let loose six rounds into the alien's soft flesh, ripping it to shreds.

The three of them descended on Harry's once again motionless body. It didn't look good.

**So concludes Part Two: Living Bad Dreams**

**Coming soon, Part Three: Awakenings**


	18. Chapter 18 Different World

**Prologue/Author's Note:**

While this novel, Our Escape, is based on the computer game Half Life:2, it is not intended as a simple telling of events. I write a lot, and my writing becomes a way of conveying my ideas on the world, and much of the time, just venting my frustration at the ignorance, the arrogance, the fears and hopes and atrocities of the situation in which I and so many others live in.

I've led an interesting life, so far, who hasn't? Oftentimes the things I write about are events that really happened, but spun in such a way to get across my perspective on the situation. The DMT trip described in Chapter Sixteen is something I physically experienced, and in part was something I wanted to incorporate into my writing. The main characters, Harry, Heidi, James and Olivia, are built up with aspects of real people. They're not based on anyone in particular, but their appearances, characteristics, emotions, reactions and so on are taken from some of the many interesting people I know. I don't do this for these people; there's no point asking me to incorporate you into my writing, but rather as a sign of respect. For example, the characters of James and Olivia were originally based on two friends of mine who started dating soon before I started this novel, and are still going strong today. However, to base it solely on them would soon get boring; I only know so much about each of them. The person James was based on in reality would never touch cannabis, so for the purpose of the novel I included characteristics of several other real life people in order to create a whole new person. Nothing in this world is truly original; I don't perform inception. Harry's father, who you'll likely be seeing more of later, is based primarily on my own father, indeed much of my research was done through him. Despite all this, the character of Harry is not based solely on me. With every first person novel, you incorporate ideas of your own; which leads me to believe all writers are in some way incredibly vain, but I can't take full credit for the development of Harry. He is, however, meant in some ways to **represent** me.

The events that occur in Our Escape follow the storyline of Half Life:2, at least as closely as can be done, but something I've learned over the years is that it's not the events that count, but how you react to them.

Harry is in the story not so much to create events, more to show how events are created in reaction to him. The relationship between Harry and Heidi is based on relationships I've had over the years with women in my life. When I first started writing, Heidi was a lot different, based almost solely on my girlfriend at the time. Since then, Heidi has been developed more and more, building on the original character with aspects of others.

Hell, maybe you don't care about all this. Maybe you just want to read an awesome story, and who gives a damn what the origins of it are? I wouldn't blame you.

So let me finish with this: I've experienced a lot in my life. So much of this only I experienced, stuff that everyone else has either forgotten about or didn't even know of in the first place. A lot of these moments, be they good or bad, I don't want to be lost forever in the mists of time and memory, so I write.

I also like to rant, as you can probably tell. This prologue was originally five pages long. If you want to hear what I have to say, if you have any questions, hell if you just want to talk to someone with no opinions or bias toward you, give me a buzz. I like talking to new people. Either post a review, or flick me an email at .

Now, onto the story.

**Part Three: Awakenings**

**Chapter Eighteen – Different World**

Now back in my own body, I woke to a world of pain. Every muscle in my body, every vein and every artery screamed in agony, felt like it was on fire. When you're in pain, you instinctively try to do everything you can to end the pain. If you're in an uncomfortable position, it's virtually impossible to hold that position if you know there's something you can do to stop the pain.

When you're in a situation like this, though, there's nothing you can do. You're stuck with the pain, and since there's nothing else, you concentrate on the pain. It takes over, makes it hard to remember anything but pain. In some ways it could be considered similar to a psychedelic trip.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the pain began to subside. I was able to determine where I was and what was going on.

I was lying on the couch upstairs, my shirt stripped off and replaced with mounds and mounds of bandages. Heidi was wiping the blood off me, Olivia rummaging through the first aid kit we'd brought with us, James apparently rolling a really big joint.

"Fuck..." I muttered, "How long have I been out?"

"About fifteen minutes." Heidi said, unexpectedly calm.

"You in pain, man?" asked Olivia, "All I've got here is some aspirin and paracetamol."

"There's morphine in the cupboard. Black bag, about yah-big."

"Morphine?" inquired James, suddenly interested.

"Don't even fucking think about it." Olivia told him sternly, "This it?"

"Yeah. Actually... don't worry about it." I said. The pain was suddenly not so bad. Like a dull headache, though somehow through my entire body. Not pleasant, but not unbearable. "Someone chuck me a durry."

"You said we can't smoke in here, though."

"Yeah... true. I'll go outside then."

I climbed to my feet. Took a step. Realized something was wrong.

My leg hadn't given out.

"What the fuck? Harry, you probably shouldn't walk on that."

"Wow. Um. Guys, my leg feels fine."

I grabbed a pack of cigarettes lying on the kitchen bench and went to the balcony. The others followed, looking as puzzled as I felt.

"Here you go, man, have some of this." James said, handing me a large blunt he'd been rolling. Not a joint, a blunt. Stoked. If you've never smoked the herb before, let me explain. A blunt is like a joint, but instead of rolling it with paper, you use a cigar. The large amount of weed and strong tobacco creates an amazing smoking experience; as teenagers James and I had rolled blunts at every opportunity.

I lit up and almost instantly felt the nicotine and THC flooding into my brain. It was like I'd been detoxing, one toke and I was hit by a head spin so relaxing I had to sit down. A minute or two later when the weed kicked in, I felt amazing.

What the fuck did that zombie do to me?

"You OK, Harry?" Heidi asked, having a hit and passing the blunt back to James. She'd seen me sitting in my chair, grinning.

"I'm great, love. I don't know what was in that blunt, but I feel fantastic. Apart from my leg. It's too hot. I might take off the bandages."

Despite their protests, I sluggishly unraveled the bandages around my leg and untied the crude splint. You know how when you've had a Band-Aid on for a few days, and when you take it off the skin underneath is all white and wrinkly? My leg looked like that, and smelled like three day old sweat and blood, but was completely healthy. I tested the joints, they were tight and painful, but that was to be expected.

"I don't really know how to describe this, guys, but right now, I feel perfect. James, you remember when we took DMT? Remember how afterwards, we got that afterglow?"

"Yeah, I remember it well."

"I'm feeling like that now."

I guess none of us knew the bullet we'd just dodged. It was not until several days later that we learned how when a headcrab latches onto a person, as soon as the claws penetrate the skin, there's no coming back. It was years before someone discovered that they release a very potent neurotoxin that the body becomes dependent on within seconds. Even longer to discover the neurotoxin had a chemical structure very similar to that of dimethyltryptamine.

It wasn't until several decades later, when James and I were sharing a blunt that we came to the conclusion that the only reason I'd survived was because of my prior experience with psychedelics. My body had the slightest bit of resistance to the neurotoxin, giving me a few vital seconds in which Heidi was able to wrench the beast from my head.

Evolution is an interesting thing. Part of the reason for the neurotoxin, we later learned, was in order to prolong the life of the zombie for the headcrab. Symbiosis, not parasitism. The neurotoxin accelerates growth, making the body produce cells more quickly. This was what caused me to recover so quickly after the incident, and also caused the afterglow. The toxins in my body that had built up over the years were flushed or neutralized, purifying my body.

Of course, we didn't know any of this at the time.

**A/N: I'm not in any way, shape or form endorsing taking lots of drugs in order to help survive a zombie apocalypse. It probably wouldn't work in reality. **

"Hate to be a buzzkill..." Olivia said, "But what do we do about the bodies?"

"Eh... rank. I propose we get really baked and then decide what to do. No way am I handling them sober." James said,

"He has a good point." I agreed. Someone passed me the blunt. "Stoked!"

An hour and a half later, we decided that we were stoned enough to stop procrastinating and decide what to do. I joked about having James go down and deal with the corpses while I stayed on the balcony with a bong, but when the others took me seriously, I decided to actually help.

Olivia suggested burning them. This did seem like the best option, but I was hesitant to waste precious fuel, and none of us were too keen on the idea of burning flesh.

"What about the shafts?" James suggested,

"What shafts?"

"The mine shafts!" I exclaimed, catching on, "This land used to be prime real estate, during the gold rushes. That's why the town was built in the first place, because the whole surrounding area was filled with gold. They drilled or dug or whatever lots of tunnels, but also a lot of straight shafts. We're not quite sure what for, but my old man reckons it was probably as test drills, to see if there was actually gold there. Most of the ones on our property don't go anywhere, a few years ago him and I went down one and yeah, no tunnel. Just a big, deep hole."

"So we dump the bodies down there?" Heidi asked, squeamish about the idea.

"Yeah. They'll decompose, and the shafts have wooden covers that dad built. Safety reasons."

"I'll do it. You guys can stay here." James said valiantly.

"Not happening." I replied firmly, "No way are you lugging six corpses into the woods, you're way too much of a pussy." I grinned, "Don't get a boy to do a man's job. Plus you'll need me to show you where the shafts are."

I'll spare you the gory details, but half an hour later James and I were traipsing through the woods, lugging behind us a very heavy, very putrid and not very maneuverable trailer piled with bodies. I almost wanted to start ringing a gong and calling "Bring out your dead!"

Pulling a trailer through the bush is not an easy thing to do. The ground isn't exactly flat, and there's an unlimited number of things that a trailer can get stuck on, under or in.

"So you sure you know where you're going? I don't want to be wandering around aimlessly for two hours."

"Don't worry, I know this forest better than I know Heidi."

"Yeah? What makes you say that?"

"People change faster than nature."

We reached the mine shaft that I'd decided we'd ditch the bodies in. I hefted the heavy wooden cover off to expose the hole.

"That's true." James said, tipping the decomposed pile of flesh into the void. "Damn, that's deep."

"Oath. Twenty meters or something." I kicked a dead headcrab that had missed the hole. It tumbled down into the darkness.

We put the cover back on, lit up a cigarette each and dragged the much lighter trailer back home to the girls. Heidi had been cooking, while Olivia worked at getting a radio to work. Earlier in the day, she turned on the TV, but wasn't getting any channels. None of us knew why, so she decided to channel surf a radio later. We all wanted to hear what had been going on in the world, our only news having been that the Combine had taken over.

That afternoon, as we sat down to eat, she put on one of the few frequencies she'd found that worked. The presenter sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure from where.

"_...A few small settlements have managed to resist the Combine, but these are few and far between. We're currently broadcasting from a remote location, hopefully unknown by the enemy, and plan to continue as long as possible._

"_To confirm, this is a world wide event, Combine forces having ambushed population centers in every developed and undeveloped country in the world. Exact numbers aren't known, but it's estimated the Combine armies number in the millions. How exactly they got here is still unknown, but from the technologies we've seen and heard about so far, it was probably child's play._

"_A lot of rumors are flying around, but I guess this is to be expected. Unfortunately, this leaves people in the dark as to what is actually going on. The so-called news won't tell you anything, so here's the story as we've pieced it together._

"_We were invaded by the Combine the other day. They attacked completely without warning, quickly seizing control of important places and information. We stood no chance, we were unprepared, and they clearly had every country's military and defense systems scoped out. After just over seven hours of brutal, guerrilla warfare, Dr Wallace Breen, ex-administrator of the top secret research facility, Black Mesa, surrendered on behalf of all of Earth. The rationale behind this is not known for sure, but we've heard reports of him working with the Combine, leading us to believe he was a traitor all along._

"_Things are still pretty hectic. There's still a lot of fighting going on, but it's unorganized and fruitless. The Combine seem to know everything about us, but we know nothing about them._

"_If you managed to escape the cities, do not let your guard down, you're not necessarily in the clear. Raids have been carried out on settlements, both small and large, and the results aren't generally positive. While they've taken control of all major population centers, and some smaller cities and towns, most have been just decimated. Burned to the ground or flooded with hostiles. We've heard all sorts of reports, some towns were simply massacred, others had the residents taking prisoner, even a few just blown up."_

We listened for a bit longer, hearing about the countless atrocities and horrors of this invasion. There was obviously still a lot of confusion; we listened to several other channels and heard a lot of conflicting information. Eventually, after about an hour of surfing, we'd heard all there was to hear. Everyone was just repeating the same things, and there were big holes in some stories, so we turned the radio off.

The rest of the afternoon was spent taking stock of what we had, what we didn't have, and what we'd need to get. We were severely lacking in food, estimating only about three days worth. I could hunt, and I could fish, but I knew the area well and doubted we'd be able to survive by living off the land. The only solution would be to make a scavenging mission into town. From what we'd heard on the radio, we assumed the town was one of those simply destroyed by the Combine. None of us particularly wanted to go, but none of us wanted to let the others go without them, so it was decided we'd all have to go.

"So, what, we go under cover of darkness, like in the movies?" asked Heidi.

"Fuck darkness. We go around high noon." James said, "When, though? Tomorrow?"

"The day after, I reckon. Partly because I'm procrastinating, but mainly because we'll use tomorrow to get a bit more set up here and get ready for the mission."

After another almost sleepless night, we ate, we smoked, and began making plans.

We would take the seldom used SUV from the garage. It was big, had plenty of space for supplies, and would be able to splatter zombies better than a sports car. My old man never used it, it wasn't registered or warranted, but considering the circumstances we weren't too worried about that.

There wasn't much to take with us, we only planned to be there for a few hours, so we mainly packed weapons and ammunition. Lots of ammunition.

I was looking at something a little more interesting, though. Secretly I was looking forward to it, a chance to get back some of those fucking headcrabs.

A few years back, my old man and I had become interested in blacksmithing. We built a bit of a forge, nothing fancy, but with it we'd forged dozens of blades, weapons, and other things from metal. A lot of the products were crude and pointless, but after a bit of practice him and I started selling them.

So, that morning, I fired up the furnace and got to work. James had found the barbecue, and was a few meters away, cooking lunch, drinking beer and smoking. Olivia was sitting, reading a book she'd found inside, enjoying the late-Summer sun. Heidi was with me, and I was teaching her some of the basics of smithing.

"You keep it in the furnace until the metal gets red hot, see how it's started to glow? You don't want to leave it in too long, though, or the iron can actually catch fire, and when that happens you've fucked the metal. Alright, I think it's ready. Watch out for sparks."

I was making a blade. Pretty crude, and simple, but it would be useful if we came into close contact with any zombies. Resting it on the anvil, I hammered it into shape, lecturing Heidi as I did so.

"It's actually a pretty delicate process, generally. Hit too hard, or in the wrong place, and you leave big dents in the metal. Usually this just makes it look shit, but since we may actually be using this blade, I'm more worried about strength. If it's not entirely uniform, some parts will be stronger than others, and it might break. Metal splinters aren't fun."

The metal had cooled, I stuck it back in the furnace.

"It's a lot to think about, smithing is. There are a lot of variables to be controlled. You don't want to heat it too many times, because the more it heats and cools, the weaker the bonds in the molecules. Or something. I don't know; I failed science. Anyway, it makes the metal more brittle. If your blade is too brittle, comes into contact with flesh and bone too often or too hard, the blade breaks and you're left high and dry in the middle of a battle. Alright, I'll do this once more, then bask it."

I was giving the blade the final knocks when Heidi spoke up.

"Um... Harry? We've got company. One guy."

After one final bang, I thrust the blade into the bucket of cold water. It hissed, flash-boiling much of it into steam. Looked around to the driveway.

There was one lone man walking calmly toward us. He carried a duffel bag, slung over his shoulder. Had a holster strapped to one thigh, some sort of handgun in it. Carrying a shotgun.

It was my father.


	19. Our Escape: By The Way

**Half Life: Our Escape: By The Way (Part One of Two)**

Sunday night, 11pm. I was still up, working on my old truck, and had been for the past five hours. My cell phone buzzed on the workbench. With a sigh, I extracted my head from the engine casing and answered it. I'd have liked to have let it go to voice mail, but as a doctor a phone call can sometimes mean the difference between life and death.

"We have to go. I'll meet you at the batch."

My son.

Several years ago, when the aliens showed up, there began to be rumors. When you work as a GP, you talk to a lot of people. Word of mouth is a powerful thing. After things had settled down a bit, and the vortigaunt's started being accepted into our society, these rumors began to escalate, talking of some sort of impending invasion. No one had the full story and no one liked talking about it, but I pieced a few things together.

Harry heard these rumors too. As a teenager, he'd been interested in computers. He was always online, though damned if I know what he was doing. I've never really understood the internet, nor had any desire to. He told me he'd been surfing forums and news sites, and had also found out about this possible "invasion".

Eventually, we decided we'd have to prepare, in case this ever did happen. We made plans, got supplies, made connections and kept our eyes open. Then finally, that fateful night.

"I understand. I may have to stay a few days. The injured."

"Good luck." he said, and hung up.

Harry knew what he was doing, if he followed the plan he'd be fine. He was to find and save his girlfriend, and make an effort at contacting some or all of his contacts. Following that, he'd make his way to my plot of land and wait for me there.

I didn't panic. I'd spent years preparing for this day.

More than anything I'd have liked to have hopped in my car, a brand new Passat R36, and floored it to the coast. Something stopped me, though; duty.

From the second I arrived in Vietnam, I was taught to do my duty. It doesn't matter if it kills you, they said, you will do your duty. They hammered that into the brains of every recruit until it was all they knew. Unlike my son, I maintained a sense of patriotism, something I knew would ultimately lead to my death.

I put the kettle on, made a cup of coffee. Called an old comrade from 'Nam.

"Darius speaking."

"Darius. It's Rick."

"Rick, thank fuck. I was just about to call you. Get your ass over here, ASAP."

"Why?"

"Things are happening, there's going to be an attack."

"So it's true, then?"

"You know?"

"Yeah. My son called me. Where are you?"

"Go to my house, some people will meet you there. Go with them."

"Let me get some stuff together, then I'll be right over."

He ended the call. I put on the TV, BBC News. Nothing important, some story about a spoiled rich girl being caught in possession of meth or heroin or something. Muting it, I loaded my Armageddon bag into the car and went to arm myself.

Harry had taken the weaponry idea very seriously, buying countless black market guns. How he managed this I still don't know, and don't particularly want to know. I just helped fund it.

In the basement there was a large network of pipes, water pipes leading to and from the hot water cylinder, to the washing machine, throughout the house and so forth. There was one such pipe, though, that on close inspection didn't lead anywhere. With just a monkeywrench, one could unscrew this pipe to reveal a small box containing a 9mm handgun, three spare magazines, two hundred rounds and a holster. I strapped on the holster, loaded the 9mm and put the magazines and spare rounds into a box clipped to my belt. Put on a jacket to cover it. Grabbed my work bag and hopped in the car.

Drove to my clinic as fast as I dared, tossed out anything non essential from my bag and replaced it with various medical supplies the likes of which I'd had in my kit in Vietnam.

Splints, bandages, dressings, needles and thread. Drugs; morphine, codeine, sedatives.

Cyanide.

It was almost twelve, I headed for Darius's house. All the lights were on, and I saw people moving around inside. Getting out of my car and heading for the door, a young man answered it before I was even halfway up the drive.

"You Rick?"

"Yeah."

"Hop in the van, you're coming with us."

"Where's Darius?"

"Get in the van, we'll explain on the way."

"What about my car?"

"Leave it here. What's in the bag?"

"Medical supplies."

"Fucking tops. Get in the van."

Somewhat reluctantly, I got into a black, unmarked van with blackened windows. It wasn't what I expected inside.

Two old, worn out couches had replaced the seats, a tattered old rug covered the floor, there was a small table in the middle, a beer fridge against the side and a tie died piece of fabric separating this area from the front seats. Getting in, I smelt stale weed, a smell I'd learned to pick up after raising Harry. Inside were two people, a black man who looked about my age, and a vortigaunt, both looking supremely out of place. I took a seat on the couch.

"We're just waiting for one more person, then we go." said the man, leaning forward to close the door. I noticed he had a prosthetic leg. "My name's Eli. You're Rick, I presume?"

"Yeah."

"This is Kaj. The man you just met, Jared. Sorry if he was a bit rude, we're all a little bit stressed."

"Is anyone going to explain what's going on?"

"Be patient, just waiting on Greg. Saves me explaining things twice. Now then..." he rifled through a duffel bag on the seat and withdrew a crumpled piece of paper.

"You're a doctor, served in Vietnam as a medic?"

Now I was getting suspicious. "Alright, what the fuck is going on? I get told to come over here, get in a fucking van with a guy I've never met who knows who I am? Fuck this, I want answers."

The door opened again, and a slightly bedraggled man, who looked little older than my son, got in. Seeing the interior, he grinned, "I love the smell of weed in the morning." he said, flopping down on the couch beside me, reached into the fridge and took a beer. After taking a swig and belching loudly, he looked at me, saw the disdain on my face, grinned again and said, "Sup, man?"

"Fuck off."

"Woah, cool it dude. Have a bong or something. In fact..." he dug in his pocket and pulled out a little bag.

"Greg, no." said Eli firmly.

Jared poked his head through the curtain, "We're all set. Time is... Twelve-sixteen." he said, starting the engine.

"We're behind schedule. Gun it." I heard another voice from the front say.

"Now, I don't know how much each of you know, but you're all to some extent aware that we are under attack." Eli spoke, "The attackers are not like anything anyone has ever faced before. They are, as far as we know, a highly advanced alien empire, set on ruling every civilized race in the galaxy. We don't know much about the ruling body itself, but know that their shock troopers, the army we will be dealing with, are armed with weaponry and technology far superior to anything humanity could fabricate."

Greg was nodding, the vortigaunt remained silent.

"Unfortunately, the majority of the planet is unaware of this. No one saw the signs, and most people don't take the vortigaunts seriously. Rick, have you ever heard of the Black Mesa incident?"

"Of course, it was all over the news in its time."

"That it was, but what you saw was nothing compared to what really happened. I was a scientist there, one of the few who escaped. The facility was blamed simply for unleashing alien races into the earth's ecosystem, but it goes deeper than that. When the teleportation rip was created, a technology that was not lost with the 'unexpected' destruction of the facility, and the foreign beings flooded through, this caught the attention of the Combine Empire, who were already pursuing races such as our vortigaunt friends. It now seems that they've been able to sustain that rip, and are using it to orchestrate a massive surprise invasion. We are the resistance."

"Why doesn't anyone know about this? You haven't told anyone?"

"We've tried. Unfortunately, due to the events of Black Mesa, the few surviving scientists, myself included, had to go into hiding. And no one wants to listen to the ranting of what they see as drug frenzied aliens."

"So what are we doing?"

"When the Combine invasion begins, as it will tonight, we need to fight back. Right now we're heading for our headquarters, where the few people on our side are getting ready. This is an attack unlike anything man kind has ever faced. If you have anyone to contact or warn about this, do so now."

"My son, Harry, has already left. We knew, to an extent, about some sort of global disaster, and had planned for this."

"Where has he gone?"

"With his girlfriend, Heidi, he is heading for my house out west. They'll be safe there, I hope, and he's not unskilled."

"Wait. Heidi?" spoke up Greg, staring at me.

"Uh, yes. His girlfriend is called Heidi."

He narrowed his eyes, "Is she South African, per chance?"

"Yes, she is. Do you know her?"

He laughed derisively, "Your son," he said, "Is the most pathetic, dishonorable motherfucker I have ever met."

This hit home. My gun was out and in his face before I knew what I was doing. He pulled out a revolver and had that on me a second later.

"No one insults my son."

"You stupid old man, you think you scare me? Your son took everything from me. Cost me my job, stole Heidi from me, he fucked me over royally. You think I'm going to take shit from you, the man who raised him like that? Fuck you."

"Gentlemen, gentleman please!" exclaimed Eli, throwing up his hands theatrically, "We are about to be invaded, sort out your differences on your own time!"

Slowly, glaring at each other, we put our guns away. "My son is more of a man than you'll ever be. If you ever insult him like that again, I will kill you." I was deadly serious.

"Come at me, bro." Greg shot back, lighting up a cigarette.

"We're almost there!" yelled back Jared, oblivious or uncaring, "Time is... twelve twenty eight."

"Good to see that you're already armed, Rick." Eli said calmly, "I take it you know how to use it?"

"I fought in Vietnam, I know how to use a gun, be it on Viet Cong or aliens. Or, arrogant youths." I said, still glaring at Greg.

"Good. You're a doctor, aren't you? That'll come in handy. We'll set you up as best we can, but we're not an army. This will be entirely guerrilla warfare. I'm a scientist, not a sniper, but I do possess some skill in the field. I'm going to be honest with you guys here, there's not a very high likelihood that we will win, or even survive. They are better armed, better prepared, they know a lot about us, and, I'm sad to say, we know almost nothing about them."

The van screeched to a stop, causing Greg to drop his cigarette and swear loudly. The door slid open, Greg went to get out. I pushed him back down, "Age before beauty." I said, climbing out myself.

We were in the industrial part of town, outside a large factory complex. Jared was standing there, "Follow the path, into the building, wait there. Drink some coffee, smoke some grass, do whatever you have to do." he ordered.

The vortigaunt, Eli, Jared and the other man left us without another word, going off on some business of their own. In silence Greg and I followed the path, ending up in a large warehouse, with maybe a hundred people, all milling around, talking, smoking, drinking coffee and eating donuts. It looked almost like some huge support group meeting, apart from the men in faded army fatigues passing out weapons to men and women, half of which looked like they couldn't even handle a bowie knife. I wondered why they'd been called in, what significance did any of them play in the scheme of things? They weren't strategists, they weren't soldiers, they were blue and white collar workers.

"Any prior experience with firearms?" I heard a bored, monotonous voice say to me. Turning, it was one of the uniformed men, a short guy dragging a trolley loaded with guns and ammo.

"I served in Vietnam." I told the guy. Greg, still standing near, sneered; "Fuck off." I snarled. It was after midnight, I was just beginning to get tired, and I wasn't going to take shit from some hippie burnout.

"You all good to handle a M-16?" the guy asked, looking over a clipboard.

"Rick! You made it!" I heard a voice bellow across the crowd. Meters away, Darius was standing calmly, towering over the majority of people, bellowing orders to and fro, a submachine gun clipped to his belt. He muscled his way over, "I'll handle this." he said to the armorer, who shrugged and shuffled off.

"Listen, we're pressed for time here, so I'll give you the run down. When the Combine invasion begins, as we expect will happen within the next two to three hours, this complex will become our stronghold. We needed somewhere we could use to hold them off, make into a sort of safe haven for citizens. The longer we can hold out against them, the better. It's not a particularly good situation we're in, we can't save everyone, but we're doing everything we can. At the moment, shuttles out of the city are being arranged, for people wishing to get out, or people heading for our outposts. While not something I would endorse, if you feel you need to get out, now is the time."

"I will do my duty to the country." I said stonily.

"Good, now let's get you armed. You, come along, yeah?" he said to Greg.

Darius, clearly having some sort of authority here, led us along a start, boring corridor. I wasn't particularly pleased that Greg now seemed attached to me, but as long as he kept his mouth shut I wouldn't have to get mad.

Through a security booth, a few locked doors, and into a large storage room, the walls lined with guns of all shapes and sizes, the floors covered with boxes and racks of ammunition.

"Jesus H Fuck." Greg muttered, "What the fuck does this factory do?"

"They've been preparing for some time. Rick, you know what you're doing, take your pick."

Men with trolleys were rushing in and out of the room, loading their carts with boxes of ammo, particular weapons, all going about their business, but largely disorganized. I didn't like it.

One half of the room seemed to be devoted to assault rifles. I went over and selected a particularly clean M-16.

"Ever used one of these before?" I asked Greg, feeling in my element. I adjusted the rifle, fit it into the crook of my arm.

"Just because I'm a radio host don't make me a pussy." he said, taking an AK-47 from the shelf.

"Radio host?" I questioned, snapping a magazine in.

"Yeah, run it from home. Mix dub, play that, chill. Smoke buds, talk to people."

"What in the hell is dub?"

"Dub. Dubstep. Fuck, how ignorant are you?" he stabbed a magazine into his AK-47 and began clipping spare magazines onto his belt.

"Well I'm wise enough to know that your gun is going to jam the second you pull the trigger."

"What?"

"Try it. Right here."

Darius was watching our banter with an amused look on his face. The stoner had stuck the wrong type of mag into his AK-47.

Aiming at the concrete floor, he cringed and pulled the trigger. There was a click as the gun jammed, right on cue.

I laughed and brought the M-16 up to my shoulder, looked down the barrel into the red face of Greg.

"Get that shit out of my way." he said, shoving the barrel away.

"You wanna pick up a Glock as well, man?" Darius asked,

"Nah, already sorted." I showed him the 9mm,

"Shot. Plenty of ammo?"

"Heaps."

"Alright then. I'm gonna have a smoke, care to join me?"

"You know I don't smoke anymore. But, yeah, I'll come with."

Greg, quite annoyingly, followed us out to the smoking area, and while Darius pulled out a cigarette, Greg decided now was the right time for another joint.

"Whole world's about to go to shit, and you're worried about lung cancer?" Darius asked me incredulously, the pack of cigarettes still in his hand.

"Alright, fuck it." I conceded, accepting the smoke.

"Maybe you should hit a bit of this, mate, calm you down." Greg put in, puffing away at his joint.

"I'll say it again, Greg. Fuck off."

"A'ite." he said, shrugging. He took a deep puff, blew it in my face and sauntered off, AK-47 at his hip.

"That kid's gonna get himself killed." I told Darius.

"You'd be surprised. As much of a dropkick as he may be, he's proven useful. His radio skill is unparalleled, and despite his ignorance when it comes to firearms, he knows how to shoot."

"Hah. The only shooting that fucker does is into a Kleenex."

We milled around for another hour or so, receiving little new information, but Darius briefed the rest of the complex on the situation. They were all surprisingly calm, and I later learned, all knew to some degree of the invasion long before it was set to occur.

Then, just shy of two-thirty, a large television was flicked on to a 24/7 news channel. A female newsreader was sitting at her desk, reading the current story. The caption showed "Breaking News!"

"We've just been informed that all over the country people are reporting hostile, foreign soldiers and there have been reports of numerous unidentified aircraft. The authorities are telling people not to panic, but already small groups of people have already apparently taken to looting. We now cross live to the Oval Office, where the President of The United States Dr Graham Hensen is about to address the world in an urgent press conference."

The screen cut to show the most powerful man in the world, sitting humbly behind his desk.

"My fellow Americans," he began, "The question as to whether or not we are alone in the universe was answered several years ago. The vortigaunts, the head crabs, the antlions, all species from another planet. It seems that today-" He was cut off to a blast of crackling static, an explosion. The camera swung around, revealing the doors to have been blown off their hinges and about a dozen men in white body armor were flooding in.

They opened fire upon the dozens of unarmed journalists and staff, there were screams and cries as they tried to leap out of the way, tried fruitlessly to dodge bullets. In the corner of the view, I saw the President tackled by four of his Secret Service agents, all of which were already firing back with puny handguns that didn't even seem to wound these unknown invaders.

The battle didn't last long, within seconds one of the masked soldiers dragged a kicking, bloody Hensen into the camera's view, drew a large knife and slit his throat.

The feed went dead.

"Holy fucking shit!" someone who sounded a lot like Greg yelled, and then, pandemonium. Everyone freaked, lost control, but without anywhere to go, they bustled around like blind chickens, shouting and crying to each other.

"QUIET!" roared Darius, "Everyone calm the fuck down!"

The shouting stopped. Dozens of sets of eyes fixated on Darius, waiting.

"We don't have long. They will be here any minute. Prepare yourselves!"

Already I could hear the sounds of sirens and car horns, the thud of helicopter blades and even gunfire. It had begun.

Darius, along with several other men, began yelling orders to people, sending them throughout the complex. Despite the original panic, everyone now seemed to know what to do. I ended up in a platoon of about a dozen people, Greg included. We were sent outside, to a side gate into the complex. The gates were closed and chained, naturally, but I knew they wouldn't stop an attack.

The complex was already under attack, the sounds of gunfire were getting closer and closer. In the distance I saw helicopters and armored vehicles, and huge, three legged machines stomping around the city, dominating the horizon. Nothing we could do, we had to hold this position. As we stood and waited, in my head I heard the same lines over and over, lyrics, reminiscing to my days in Vietnam.

_I stand my ground for the very last time,_

_Gun is ready as I stand in line,_

_Nervous wait for the whistle to blow,_

_Rush of blood and over we go._

This battle could be my last, I knew that. I'm no stranger to that feeling of finality, but no matter how many battles, wars and firefights I ever take part in, it'll never get any easier. I'm not a Viking; I have no desire to die in "glorious" battle. Conflict is never glorious.

With the roar of a powerful engine, one of the huge armored vehicles sped our way, right for the gates. We scattered as it barreled through, sending the steel gates flying. It screeched to a halt, and from a turret on the top, opened fire. A cluster of the masked soldiers followed in its wake, raising their weapons and targeting us.

"Breach on the South gate!" I heard Greg yell into a radio. I didn't hear the reply.

I leapt behind a dumpster and returned fire. Not Hollywood style, full auto shooting from the hip, I clicked the M16 onto semi-auto, lined up my shots.

One shot, missed. I was getting too old for this shit.

Second shot, struck a soldier in the shoulder and spun him around. He stumbled, recovered, and aimed at me.

From the corner of my eye I saw one of our men fall.

Third shot, dead on. Right through where the soldier's left eye should have been. He dropped.

Head count. We'd lost three guys, I saw two enemy corpses. We were outnumbered, but not by much.

Fourth, fifth and sixth rounds went toward taking down another soldier.

One of our men dived behind the same dumpster I was covered by. He was a veteran, in full fatigues and shooting with a precision I was almost envious of.

"Think we can take 'em?" he panted, ducking around the corner, letting off a burst of rounds and leaping back.

Another man down. He'd made the mistake of poking his head out from his hiding place, not two feet from where Greg was firing with deathly accuracy. His head popped, struck by a glowing round from the turret. More Combine had showed up. We were fucked, outnumbered two to one.

"Grenades." I yelled back over the sounds of battle. "How many you got?"

"Three."

"Give me one."

These Combine were skilled marksmen, but had clearly never fought an enemy like us before. They didn't have any cover, only occasionally utilizing their tank. They spread out, but in groups of about five.

I ripped the pin out, leapt from my hiding spot and launched it at the tank. It struck the wheel and bounced to the ground, then went off right by a cluster of three Combine. The tank rocked on its axles, two of the three soldiers were flung in all directions. I saw limbs ripped off.

"Another."

The tank was still firing, seemingly undamaged apart from a large scorch mark and dent. I tried again.

This explosion blew the whole front corner of the the vehicle to shreds, it tilted and was immobilized, but kept shooting.

"Another!"

Back up had arrived in the form of Darius and three others, and just in time too. We only had four of our own men left, and Greg was stuck on his own fifteen meters away. Still, I counted eleven Combine. It would be tough.

In the time it took me to use half my magazine, we lost two more men, and Darius roared, "Back to the base!"

We took cover around the corner of a building, I did a head count.

"Where's Greg?" I demanded,

"He must still be back there!"

"Leave him, there's nothing we can do!"

"No! You never leave a man behind!" I said forcefully.

"Rick, he's probably already dead."

"Fuck you."

I raced back around. Greg was still alive, armed only with a pistol now, as the Combine steadily advanced. He fought with the fury of an animal backed into a corner. I saw him let off three rounds in a row, striking three consecutive Combine in the head with perfect accuracy.

Switching to full auto, I fired into the line of Combine, all with their backs to me. More gunfire came from behind me, I saw Darius and another man had followed and were pouring their ammo into the Combine, who quickly adapted and returned fire.

I took two rounds to the leg before we got him out of there, cutting down all but two of the Combine who ran for the cover of their tank, giving us just enough time to retreat to the cover of the warehouse. Finally inside, I collapsed on the ground and had someone bring me my work bag. The fighting was still going on outside, we'd have to get back out there.

"You saved me back there." Greg said to me somberly.

"Yes."

"Why? I thought you hated me."

I jabbed a pair of tweezers into the gun wound, wincing at the pain. Located the bullet, gently pulled it out. This was something I'd been forced to do once in Vietnam, after having my entire platoon killed, and only narrowly escaping myself. I spent four days in the woods after that, on my own until I could return to the base.

"You never leave a man behind." I told him, through teeth gritted by the pain.

Did the same with the other wound, a few centimeters from the first. This bullet was much deeper, I could barely get it out. The others looked at me in both awe and disgust. I slapped on some gauze and bandaged it up tightly. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't comfortable, but I could walk, I could run. I could fight.

Darius had been talking on a radio, he came over to our little group to speak.

"Things aren't good, guys. The Combine are working faster than we thought. It's looking like we're not going to be able to hold them off much longer. You haven't seen the rest of the facility, but they've pretty much got us surrounded. Somehow they must have known this was to be a stronghold. My orders are for us to find a vehicle, try and drive out."

"Leave? We can't just leave!" exclaimed Greg, with nods from me and one other soldier.

"We have to." Darius said sadly, "I hate to do so, but if we stay there is no chance of survival. At least if we leave we can attempt to do some good outside the complex. I don't know what other chance we have, if you want to live. Try our luck out there, or get slaughtered in here."

"Radio the other people. Have them retreat, we form up together, make one final stand." suggested the other soldier.

"Mate, there are no other people. The only people still alive are fragmented, in small groups or alone, probably all trying to escape as well. We have no communication; I was just talking to Eli, but all I got was him telling me to get out."

"How in the fuck was this allowed to happen?" exploded Greg, "We thought you had a plan! Thought this place was supposed to hold off an attack! You fucking told us that we had a chance. Fuck, there's not even anyone in charge here! How fucking dumb are you cunts?"

"Hey, you think I had anything to do with this?" roared back Darius, towering a full foot and a half over Greg, "I was just fucking told to get down here four hours ago. This wasn't fucking planned, you dick. We're not some fucking militia, even I don't know what the fuck is going on. I'm not in charge, not by a fucking long shot. Don't try to fucking pin this on me or I'll kill you myself."

I stood up, picked up my gun and bag and walked, limping slightly, away.

"Where are you going?" Greg demanded, turning on me.

"I'm going to find the van we came here in. It's our only hope."

"You have a plan?"

"I have a plan in the same way this facility had a plan."

The sounds of gunfire were becoming less frequent, no longer a steady background noise, now just a few rounds at a time. Not many people left. Still, I heard the sounds of distant conflict. The front courtyard of the complex, where we'd come in, bore signs of recent battle; bullet holes in every surface, blood stains everywhere, spent casings and empty magazines littered the ground. Among the field of steel, unmoving humps lay; corpses. Both human and Combine. A burned out Combine tank was on its side, a single headlight flickering, illuminating this morbid scene, on and off, on and off.

There was no one alive, enemy or friend. Where the victors, be they human or alien, had gone was a mystery, something we didn't dwell on, instead searching for a car.

The van was just around the corner of the building, door open and keys in the ignition. We all crowded in, Darius at the wheel, and sped away. I looked back to see the complex burning.

There were six of us in all, Greg, Darius, one soldier, me, and two civilians. Only Darius, Greg and I were still armed, the others ditching their weapons when they ran out of ammunition. Greg only had a pistol, Darius his SMG, and me with my pistol and M16.

"Where to?" he asked,

"I don't know." I admitted.

"If we leave the city, we can head for one of the outposts." suggested the soldier.

The city was in absolute carnage. Even as we drove, at top speed through the streets, from the windows I saw countless firefights and raids. People running, people shooting, people being shot, desperate civilians fighting back with whatever they could find. Baseball bats, knives, chains. No match for trained soldiers with alien assault rifles and shotguns. Fires. Explosions. Limbs, corpses, oceans of blood. Impossible to do anything to help.

"Not a chance." Darius began to say, "The city has-"

A blast of noise and heat. The van was catapulted into the air, flipped. Something struck me in the head, out I was out.


	20. Chapter 19 Sex And Candy

_The battle hardened man climbs from the RX-8, walks slowly toward the three others. Two large, burly bodyguards, on either side of a tall, thin man in an impeccable suit. They look out of place in the ruins, standing calmly in the road, ignoring the destruction surrounding them._

_He had left his shotgun in the car, the two guards are armed and unafraid._

_No trace of fear on his face either; contempt has free rein._

_Striding up, he stops less than a meter from the suited man. Stares him square in the eye._

_Without a word, he reaches into his leather jacket with both hands, withdraws two revolvers, and before they have time to react, blasts the two bodyguards in the head simultaneously. Shock registers on the suited man's face, but neither break the gaze. _

_There is a dull thump as the bodies hit the ground simultaneously._

"Dad?"

James had seen him, his gun on him in a flash, then recognition dawned on his face.

"Rick!" he roared, jogging over, "How are you, mate? You want a beer?"

"Oh, shit, Rick! Hey!" Heidi exclaimed. Olivia was the only one who'd never met my old man.

He dropped the duffel bag, handed me the shotgun without a word, and collapsed into my chair.

"Dad, are you OK?" I asked, worried. He looked up at me.

"I thought you were in a crash?"

"Rumors of my crash were greatly exaggerated. It's a long story. Come on, let's get you inside."

We told him our story, and he told us his. He was exhausted, injured. Several bullet wounds and a fractured wrist, and wanted nothing more than to recover for a few days. It was agreed that we'd hold off on the scavenging for a few days, so that he could join us.

In the duffel bag were a few cans of food, medical supplies, water, and a few spare clips. None of the items from his survival bag, he hadn't even brought it. Not what was in the plan, but he got here alive.

No more progress was made that day, we just sat and smoked and talked. Dad had experienced the invasion first hand, and told us about the Combine, and how things had panned out. Things were more messed up than we knew, but it didn't change anything. We still just had to survive. Dad made that really clear; there wasn't going to be a resistance, a rebellion. There was nothing we could do, we had to just stay out here and do what we could to keep ourselves alive.

"Have you checked in with David and Jackie?" he asked over dinner.

"Who?" the others asked,

"Neighbors." I explained, "They have a house further that way. Probably wouldn't have seen it on the way in, view's blocked by trees. Nah we haven't, slipped my mind. You wanna go tonight?"

"Yeah, we'll go after dinner."

"You sure you want to go out after dark?" asked Heidi,

"Their house is a five minute walk, and there's no one else for miles around. We'll be safe."

"Alright, but I'm going with you."

"All good. James, Olivia? You guys want to come?"

They didn't want to. We set off a few minutes later, walking, and reached David's house unmolested. This was a proper house, not like where we were living. David and Jackie lived here, having retired a few years prior. There were no lights on. Dad knocked on the door. We waited.

"Hey! David, you around?" he called, continuing to pound on the door.

Finally, several minutes later, the door opened slightly. A gun barrel was pressed through the gap, and a sliver of David could be seen.

"Who the- Rick?"

"Yeah. Only us."

"Who's with you?"

"Harry, and his missus."

"Put the gun down."

We put our weapons on the ground, and he opened the door fully. He looked stressed, worried, underfed and scared. "When did you guys arrive?" he asked, beckoning us inside.

"Harry and his consort got here a few days ago, I only made it here today. How are you guys holding up?"

"Not good. We've been fine out here, no one even knows this place exists, but we have no power, and food is scarce." David told us, leading us into the living room where Jackie sat, by the fireplace, looking as scared and malnourished as her husband. These two were in their mid-sixties, and originated from Scotland. David had been a professional butler in his day, and after moving here they ran a small cafe in the town for a few years. Finally, they sold it and retired, planning to spend the rest of their days in peace and quiet in the middle of nowhere.

"We have a bit of food. Not heaps, but we can bring a bit over tomorrow." I offered, "We're also planning a scav'ing mission into town in a few days, you're welcome to come along. Safety in numbers, you know?"

"I'll probably take you up on that offer. How many people have you got?"

"There's five of us, us three, my friend James, and his girlfriend Olivia."

"How are you for space? Pretty small house you've got."

"Could be worse."

"You can stay here, if you want. We've got a few spare rooms."

"Probably not at the moment, personally I'd like to have all my people in one place, but depending on how things go we may sort something out in the near future. It would be good to work together. You mentioned that you guys don't have power?"

"Yeah, we get it from the grid which is down. To be honest, if you guys hadn't showed up we were considering raiding your solar panels."

"With good reason. While we can't do much about it tonight, over the next few days we could probably sort out some way of piggy-backing you into our system. It generates plenty of energy, and while you may not be able to run heavy machinery and floodlights, some power is better than none."

"We'd be forever in your debt."

"You help us out, we help you out. Anyway, we just came to check in, see that you're OK. We're just at home, give us a yell if you need anything."

We left soon after. It was good that they were alive and well, and their offer of a place to stay could come in useful in the near future. The walk back was largely uneventful, right up until we were walking up the driveway. There was a noise in the distance, a sort of "wob wob wob"

"What is that, dubstep?" I asked.

"Seriously, what is dubstep?" Dad demanded.

"It's a chopper! Get down!" Heidi hissed, pointing to the sky. There, in the distance, was one of the all too familiar black helicopters. It brought back memories of our escape, and the three of us leapt for the bushes.

The gargantuan metal bird soared directly over us, and while it didn't fire upon the house or even stop, I thought I saw it slow in its flight. Could have just been my imagination. When it was finally far in the distance, Dad climbed from the bush, dusted himself off and said, "Come on, let's get inside. Then you're going to explain to me what dubstep is."

That night we decided to keep a watch. James and Olivia went first, Heidi and I second, Dad last. When we finished up I left him with my iPod so that he could experience dubstep first hand. Needless to say, it wasn't his thing.

Days passed. Little happened; we cleaned the guns, forged weapons and tools, and had a run in with a few more zombies. Again, we dumped the corpses in the mine shaft. On the walk back from the makeshift burial site we encountered, unexpectedly, a lone antlion. This was strange; I'd never seen antlions in this part of the country, and they normally hunted in packs. Dad shot it, we dumped the corpse, and disregarded it. With the help of David, Dad and James began work on setting up wiring between our house and theirs.

Several refugees had shown up; family friends of David's, and they stayed with him. They brought with them a reasonable amount of food, allowing us to hold off on our scavenging mission for a bit longer. While David didn't retract his offer, we decided it would be better to stay on our land. My "consort" (as Dad had taken to calling us) and I relocated into the garage, as this left us more room to spread out. In the past, when staying here, we'd normally sleep upstairs, packing away the mattresses into the attic during the day, but since we were going to live here indefinitely, it would be easier to set ourselves up permanently. Dad slept upstairs still, his few possessions kept in the attic, while we modified the garage to make it more homely. I'd slept down there many times, for a garage it was remarkably clean and organized, but considering we'd be living in there, Olivia and Heidi decided things would have to change.

One corner of the garage became mine and Heidi's sleeping area, another James and Olivia's. We put up sheets of plywood to give us privacy, unfortunately plywood doesn't do much to stop sound. We'd have to work on that. Put some rugs and carpet scraps on the floor, a sheet as our door. James produced a large Bob Marley flag from his bag, and used that as his door, much to my envy. Heidi insisted on a proper bed as opposed to mattresses on the floor, so I grudgingly began building a crude bed frame.

Dad went out hunting one morning and brought back two young deer. That night we brought over David and his crew, cooked up the venison and had a campfire. David brought some alcohol, James supplied weed. Not everyone toked; not everyone drank, but it was a good night overall.

For the first time, in a long time, things seemed OK.

I knew it wouldn't last.


	21. Chapter 21 Cruel Intentions

"Alright, guys, none of us want to, we've been putting it off long enough, but I think it's time we hit up the town." I told the group over breakfast one morning.

"Agreed. We've got fuck all food left, and I could use a few new tools." Dad agreed.

"So today's the day?" James asked.

"Unless there are any objections, yeah."

James and I went to see David, who was keen to join us. We decided on a team of seven, us five, David, and his nephew; one of the refugees. Two cars; Dad's SUV and the van David's nephew, Julius, arrived in.

Julius was a peculiar one. While he was David's nephew, he was Asian, and no one was ever clear on how they were related. He was small, barely 5'7, nerdy, talkative, and "a hacker by trade". Twenty-six, but he didn't act it. According to David he was also a crack shot with a rifle, though I wasn't convinced.

By eleven we were all ready to go. The people staying behind, worried, unsure of what we'd find in the town. I was to be driving the SUV, Dad got the van. James and Olivia went with him, leaving Heidi and I with Julius and David.

"Shotgun!" Julius called as we were about to leave. I ignored him and let Heidi take the front, while David chuckled and climbed in back.

"Get in the back, you dog." I said, rolling my eyes.

Driving down the road, Julius took it upon himself to prevent awkward silences.

"I mean, come on. The shotgun rule is everything. It trumps all. I don't care if you're on the way to the hospital with your pregnant wife, whoever calls shotgun gets the front seat. You know, there was even a Facebook group about it, the official rules of calling shotgun. It had shit like, um... Shotgun can only be called when you're on the same surface as the vehicle. And like-"

"Hey Julius?" inquired David.

He paused. "Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Alright, but I get the front on the way back. That's only fair, yeah?"

"Hey Julius?" I said,

"Yeah?" he said, pleased that everyone was paying attention to him.

"Shut up."

Criticism of any kind was lost on Julius. Insult him, he'd just ignore you and keep talking. While he was annoying as hell, most of the time he was amusing, and at times actually quite interesting. If you could get him talking about something that wasn't pointless and arbitrary, it was possible to hold a decent discussion with him.

We rolled into the town slowly and carefully. It was eerie. The fires long burned out, the smoke mostly cleared. No one around. The occasional zombie shuffled along, oblivious to us. Few buildings were still standing, rubble littered the roads. Driving was difficult; it was impossible to take a direct route anywhere with so many roads blocked or destroyed. Scattered randomly throughout the town I saw large, foreign metal spikes sticking out of the ground, split open at the top. Some sort of incendiary?

It had been agreed we'd hit the hardware store first. The hardware store wasn't much; it was run as a side project of a demolition and salvage company. I'd worked there briefly several years back, operating machinery and sorting through rubble. It was a shit job, but the pay was good.

Dad, David, James and I all had particular things we wanted; Dad wanted electrical equipment, David welding gear, James and I just wanted general tools. While we were pretty well set up at the house, especially since we'd joined forces with David, you can never have enough tools. The main purpose of visiting the store was to see if we could steal a truck. Behind the shop was a demolition yard, where I'd worked, and large trucks of all sorts would frequently stop off there, to pick up or drop off materials and containers, for maintenance, cleaning, whatever. We weren't too picky about what sort we'd get; be it a container transporter or the type used to carry rubbish skips, as long as it was big, powerful, and could carry several tons of supplies. Since I'd worked there and knew the yard well, I was responsible for finding keys.

I went into the office alone, looking for keys. It had been several years since I worked here, but nothing had changed. The faulty lock on the office door hadn't even been replaced, saving me from sinking a round into the wood. Opening the door, I was hit by a stench I'd begun to recognize.

Slumped in a chair was a corpse. Ragged bullet hole through the temple, a torso stained with blood. A revolver lay on the floor below a limp arm, one round gone. I pocketed it, found the keys I was looking for and left silently. The man was my old supervisor. I never liked the guy, but I'd always respected him. He was tough, didn't take shit from anyone. It was rumored he was ex military, but he never talked about himself. And yet, in the end he took his own life.

No gain in feeling sad about it.

The truck we liberated was a container transporter, the type with two crane arms to lift containers on and off. Could come in useful. There was already an empty container loaded onto it; perfect.

Next on the list was the hunting and fishing store. It took us little over an hour to load up all the fishing nets, bait, crossbows and hunting knives we wanted, in which time we had a few minor scuffles with zombies. I dispatched them brutally with my newly forged machete. The feeling of retribution gained from killing an enemy that came close to destroying you is one indescribable by human vocabulary, but needless to say the others were a bit startled by my reaction.

To the other's dismay, there happened to be a head shop next door, something James and I took advantage of; cramming all the bongs, vaporizers, pipes, herbal highs and other drug paraphernalia we could into the back of the SUV. Dad especially wasn't too stoked about it, but he let it slide.

Finished there, we closed up the container, saddled up and headed for the supermarket.

"Let's hurry this up, it's getting late and I don't want to be here when the sun starts to set." Dad ordered as we climbed out of our respective vehicles in the parking lot. "And be on your guard. Any survivors probably would have come here, and I'd expect this would be a popular place for zombies, too."

The building was still standing, but it hadn't survived unscathed. Every window was shattered, and getting inside, the place was an utter mess. Dad, David and Julius went to find a forklift and started loading full pallets of food and supplies into the container, while the rest of us took trolleys through the main store, looting to our heart's content. As ruined as the place was, and despite the danger of the situation, it was fun. The ability to take as much of whatever you want, without any risk of repercussions, is amazing. We filled two trolleys with booze alone; ten cases of the most expensive beer, rum, vodka, gin, wine. Chocolate. Potato chips. Cookies, donuts, all the stuff with no nutritional value whatsoever. Most meat and fish was out of the question; power had been out for days and it was clearly expired. The whole supermarket stank. We managed to find some vacuum packed jerky type meat, though, which we took advantage of, along with canned fish. Rats were everywhere, annihilating not only the rotting meats but the fruit and vegetables, too. Canned fruit would have to do.

But the best part of that scavenging mission was the checkout.

"Smokes!" I yelled, breaking open the locked cabinet. There were seven separate checkouts, it wasn't a huge supermarket, each with it's own tobacco cabinet.

"Take them all?" James asked.

"Got any other stupid questions?" I replied, ecstatic.

All the pouches, packs, papers, filters and other general items related to smoking filled another trolley. One trolley doesn't sound like much, but when it comes to cigarettes, it's a lot.

The container and the vehicles were almost full by the time we were done. We had enough food to last for months, along with dozens of packets of seeds to grow our own food. I was rolling a cigarette, waiting for Dad and David, when Heidi called out, "Hey, what's that?"

In the distance, wandering along in the middle of the road, was a person. They were small, and didn't look right, but I couldn't tell why.

"Zombie?" James wondered,

"Too small. Zombie kid?" Julius replied.

"Zombie kid... Don't know that I could bring myself to kill it..." muttered Heidi.

Julius lifted his rifle, looked through the scope. Cracked up laughing.

"Oh, dude, that's no zombie."

"What? What is it?" we all demanded.

"Look for yourself." he giggled, passing James the rifle. After looking for himself, he too started laughing.

"It's a fucking penguin!" he chortled, handing the rifle to me.

Sure enough, milling around in the middle of a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, was an emperor penguin.

"No way!" exclaimed Olivia,

"I shit you not," I said slowly, lowering the scope, "But that's an emperor penguin."

"How do you know it's an emperor penguin?" James asked,

"I'm just assuming. Hey, I'm no penguinologist."

"Penguinologist? That's a new one..." muttered Heidi,

"Botanist, then."

"Still wrong."

"Well fuck you."

"Hate to break up the foreplay here, but what are we gonna do about this penguin?" asked Olivia, handing Julius the rifle back.

"I'm all for taking it with us." James suggested.

"It's a penguin, how are we gonna get it back?" Heidi said incredulously.

"This begs the question, of course, of what the fuck is a penguin doing here?" Julius, frustrated at being left out of the conversation for almost a minute.

"Harry, any ideas?"

"No clue in hell."

Olivia began walking slowly toward it. We followed, keeping some distance between us and her. James rifled through the food and took a few cans of tuna.

"Penguins eat fish." he justified.

When she got close to the penguin, Olivia stopped, held out her hands and began talking softly to it. It watched her cautiously. James opened a can of tuna and passed it to her. She slowly showed it to the penguin, scraped some onto the ground, and moved back. The penguin stared, and shuffled slowly toward the tuna. Prodded it with its foot (flipper, paw?), then bent over and nibbled on it before looking back up at us.

"This is honestly the buzziest thing I've ever witnessed." I muttered.

While Olivia coaxed the penguin, I kept a watch around the area. Strange that we had been left alone, weren't zombies supposed to converge on humans like flies around shit? The only ones we'd encountered had been when we were clearing out areas.

There were a few around, but none closer than a few hundred meters.

"Can I borrow that, bro?" I asked Julius.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, sure." he passed me the rifle, more interested in a penguin than his own wellbeing.

I raised the scope, brought the closest zombie into view. It had just shuffled out of a building maybe seventy meters away. The rifle was a good one, the scope powerful. The host was clearly a man, dressed in a bathrobe that hung loosely off him and stained in blood. I couldn't hear the muffled screaming from this distance.

Aim.

Squeeze the trigger.

The corpse dropped to the ground.

"Harry! What the fuck?" demanded James from a few meters away, all of them startled by the gun shot.

Another zombie, not too far from the first, must have seen or heard what happened and began stumbling slowly this way.

Aim.

Squeeze the trigger.

More shouts from the others, pissed now.

I heard David and Dad run over. "We heard gunshots! Is that a penguin?"

Several more zombies turned their attention to us.

"We've got to go, now!" someone ordered.

"What about the penguin?"

"Fuck the penguin!"

"Harry, get in the truck!"

Squeeze the trigger. Another zombie fell.

Fifty meters, give or take, a cluster of zombies.

Two more down.

"Harry, you stupid prick! Get in the fucking truck!"

I put the rifle down and drew my machete.

Thirty meters. Another gun went off, another zombie went down. More shouts from the others. Some were running for the vehicles, others yelling at me.

Twenty meters. I began striding toward the group, swinging the machete.

Decapitated one. Another grabbed at me with bloody, shredded hands which quickly turned to bloody stumps. It kept coming.

Kicked another in the thigh, it collapsed. Sliced the headcrab off another.

I heard maniacal, barbaric laughter.

Oh god, was that me?

I killed them all. Seventeen in total. I would have kept going, but in the brief lapse in conflict I was tackled by James and had my weapon knocked away. Through the struggling and shouting, Heidi put her hand on my arm and told me, "It's time to go, Harry."

They got me into the truck. James driving, me sitting silently beside him, rage burned out.

"Come on." he said, "Let's have a session."

He passed me a baggie, and I rolled us a joint. Took a hit.

"So what happened there, man?" James asked, accepting the joint and toking.

I shook my head. "Beats me. Something about seeing those things shuffling around. That could have been me."

"Good thing you've got a girl like Heidi around."

"Jesus." I muttered, "Aliens, zombies, Asians who don't shut up, now a fucking penguin. Shit's fucked."

"Don't worry man, we've got enough cigarettes, booze and weed to last the next three life times. I'll probably have a look at planting some seeds tomorrow, if that's all good."

Spirits were high at the camp that night. We had another big campfire to celebrate the arrival of the supplies. Smoked, drank, ate, talked. Traded stories; pre-war, post-war, their escape from the cities, their life stories, wherever the conversation led.

I sat with the others, drank with the others, occasionally threw in a comment, but I was relatively sombre, thinking about things. The zombies. My rage. The destruction in the town. Why the Combine had zombified it instead of taking over.

"So Harry, how'd you and Heidi end up an item?" came someone's voice, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Hey?"

"You and Heidi." one of the other refugees, Cam, said, "How'd you get together?"

I chuckled and looked over at her.

"The year was nineteen sixty nine. Nah. I dunno, about '04?"

"Twenty second of February, 2004." Heidi said, shaking her head slightly.

"Yeah. I knew that. Just been dumped by this other chick, Brooke. Met Heidi through a mate of mine, at a party or something. I wasn't sober, so naturally I was shamelessly hitting on her.

"As it turned out, she had a boyfriend. This absolute cunt by the name of Greg. Fucking douchebag."

"He was." Heidi admitted.

"Anyway, that didn't stop me. To be honest, I'm not all that proud of it, because I'd been in the reverse situation before, but I'm still glad I did, otherwise I mightn't have ended up with Heidi."

"Proud of what?"

"Continuing to hit on her. In reality, at the time Heidi was just a rebound girl. I was really cut up, but after things actually worked with Heidi, I began to really like her, she eventually ended up with me, and we've been together ever since. That guy Greg deserved what he got, he was a cunt. All's fair in love and war."

"You'd be surprised." Dad said. He'd been quiet much of the night, too, but now spoke up.

"What?"

"I neglected part of my story. During my escape I happened to meet a man by the name of Greg. Said he knew you."

"How do you know it was the same guy?" I demanded, suddenly intrigued.

"Because he called you the most pathetic, dishonorable motherfucker he's ever met."

"OK that was Greg. Fucking douchebag. He had the balls to say that shit to you? Drug fucked, scrawny little hippie!" I really hated that guy. "That fucking dog, I ought'a fucking hunt him down and beat his ass for disrespecting you and I like that!"

"No need."

"No?"

"He died getting the convoy that saved your life up and running."

That stopped me in my tracks.

"He died?"

"Knowing fully well that he was giving his life to save people he didn't know, he'd never know, and some who hated him."

"I have to go." I said quietly. I stood and walked away from the group. Couldn't be around people right now.

A short walk away from the house, down one of the paths my father had built through the forest there was a small lookout. Nothing major, just a break in the bush. It looked over the road, though was quite elevated. From there you could see for miles, over David's property and toward the few farms dotted across the land. On a nice day you could see all the way to the sea. Dad had planned to build a proper lookout here eventually, but I doubted whether that would happen now.

I took a seat on a small boulder, rolled a joint and looked out into the darkness.

Greg had saved my life.

His girlfriend had cheated on him, with me. Something I largely incited. I'd hated the guy since the day I met him, and he'd hated me. We'd had a lot of conflict in the short time we knew each other; we both bore the scars. He'd lost his job, I'd lost a lot of friends. I'd never regretted it, never felt bad.

No forgiveness for this.

I don't know how long I sat there. I should've gone back; this wouldn't be easy on Heidi either.

After maybe two hours I was roused from my thoughts by the unexpected sound of engines. Refugees? Couldn't be. I watched the road intently, trying to spot something. Too stoned to be worried.

There! Two vehicles. Those Combine tanks? Too dark to tell. Whatever they were, they were heading this way. No headlights; no surprise. They were getting closer.

They looked almost like the moon rovers from the Apollo missions; open topped buggies with big wheels and low to the ground. Made out of the same material as their guns and tanks; a dark, shiny metal looking substance.

Four Combine sitting in each, all armed with their usual rifles.

Heading this way.

Maybe if we were quiet they'd just pass by?

Wait. This road doesn't lead anywhere else.

They were coming for us.

Well, if I was quiet...

Far too stoned for this shit.

Shit.

Combine!

I leapt up, sprinted back down the path. Drew my handgun. Didn't have my shotgun; stupid! I'd dropped it by the house on my way down the path.

"Combine!" I yelled, emerging back at the house. "They're coming!"

Everyone clambered for their weapon. We'd all encountered these forces before and knew all too well what they were capable of.

My shouts only gave us a few seconds of warning, but that made all the difference. With the roar of engines and wheels skidding on gravel, the Combine buggies sped into view and screeched to a stop. The troops leapt out and without hesitation fired wildly at the group.

I was lucky; I was at the other end of the pad, covered by the house. The soldiers hadn't seen me, though our people knew where I was. I recovered my shotgun, cocked it and went to take them on.

Sprinting around the back of the house, I emerged meters from the vehicles, with the Combine's backs to me. Two had been killed, but the other six fired on regardless. I'd have to be careful, dodging the gunfire from my people. There were a lot of us, so there was a constant hail of bullets. I took aim and blasted one of the soldiers in the back, a millisecond too late; he'd already been struck in the head by a rifle shot. Five remaining.

Two more were cut down with a burst of submachine gun fire, and I picked off two from behind. The final soldier took cover behind his buggy, no doubt knowing the end was near but making no attempt to retreat. He crouched there, occasionally letting out a burst of rounds toward the group.

I approached from the rear and pressed the barrel into his back.

"Give it up, cunt."

The Combine froze. Dropped his gun.

"On your feet."

He stood slowly, pulling something from his boot. I pulled the barrel back a bit, cautious.

"That's a big knife you've got there." I said quietly.

The soldier pirouetted, up swung his leg and around came the knife, trying to slash me across the neck. Without hesitation I let loose both barrels. He fell, knife still in hand. I picked it up and looked at it. It was nice.

"Good job, mate." said David somberly, having come over.

"You alright?" Dad asked, joining us.

"Fine." I told him, handing him the knife and hugging Heidi, who'd followed.

"What's the damage?" yelled David.

"Jim's down! Jesse took a round to the shoulder. Julius is bleeding from the leg." someone called back.

"Fuck. I'd better deal with this." Dad said, passing the knife to David and rushing off.

David, Heidi and I went to look at the vehicles and deal with the corpses. We dragged them into a pile, removing all their weapons and clips.

"Harry! That one's moving!" Heidi called, pointing at the last corpse. Sure enough, the Combine was alive and trying to crawl away. I aimed my shotgun, but was too slow; David lobbed the knife and caught him in the back. I rushed over and pressed my foot down on his neck, shotgun pointed at his head.

"Speak quickly or you'll never speak again." David commanded, "What are you doing here?"

There was a garbled, unintelligible reply.

"Heidi, go grab some rope." I said, then to the Combine, "I'm not going to kill you. Yet."

"You think he could be useful?" David asked,

"Perhaps. But then, perhaps not."

Heidi returned with a coil of rope. While I was distracted, the Combine jerked, grabbed my leg and pulled me to the ground, rolled away and pulled something from his belt. It looked like a small revolver. David shouted and leapt at him, not before the he pulled the trigger. Not at either of us; I at first thought the shot had gone wild. A small, red ball shot out and into the air, glowing brightly. Some sort of flare. David ripped the thing from his hand and tossed it away, twisting the soldier's arm, kneeling on his back. He struggled, but I shoved my knee into his neck and held it there. Heidi unwound the rope and together we hogtied him tightly.

The flare hung in the air for a few minutes before burning out and fading from view. Not good.

"Now, let's see what's behind that mask." I said, tearing the thick white plastic from the soldier's head.

His face was not unlike that of a regular man. He had long, matted black hair and milky white eyes. No iris. There were bright red circles around his eyes; the eyepieces in the helmet clearly attached to his face. His skin was pale, almost albino. There were two large protrusions on his neck, ending in raw, bloody stumps. The inside of the helmet tapped into these, though for what purpose I couldn't fathom. His nose was flattened and insignificant, ears almost nonexistent. The mouth was essentially the same as a normal mouth, except that his teeth were all sharpened. They clicked when he talked.

He spat blood and teeth, glared at the three of us.

"My brothers will be here. You will all die, they will give you no mercy. I will return a hero. Fuck you." he said, breathing heavily.

"We'll see about that." I said, whacking him in the forehead with the butt of my shotgun. He went out cold.

"That flare will have lit up the place for miles. They know we're here now. They'll send more." David said gravely.

I put down my gun and moved back to the fire, where the rest of the people were sitting, bandaging their wounds and trying to calm down.

"My friends," I said, "Eat, drink, and be merry. For tomorrow we shall surely die."


End file.
